A Pair of Clean Hands Can Save Lives

Accustomed to great advances in medicine, staff and patients often overlook simple life-saving rules. Unclean hands are a major source of hospital infections around the globe. Studies in the US have shown compliance rates of less than 50 percent. The global health problem has an easy fix, reports the Times of India, as the World Health Organization observes World Hand Hygiene Day on 5 May. About 50 percent of India’s health-care staff is unfamiliar with proper techniques, and most patients don’t recognize the dangers. WHO urges doctors, nurses and other workers to wash hands thoroughly with soap and water before and after touching patients or surroundings. The link between infections and unclean hands was identified in 1847: A Vienna gynaecologist reduced a hospital’s death rate among mothers giving birth from 20 percent to 1 percent after urging staff to dip hands in chlorine. – YaleGlobal