Overview:
October 15th is Global Handwashing Day; is a day dedicated to raising awareness and understanding on the importance of hand washing with soap as an effective and inexpensive way to prevent disease and save lives.
Global Handwashing Day is an opportunity to design, test and iterate creative ways to encourage people to wash their hands with soap at crucial times.
This new and unprecedented situation provides a unique incentive to make hand hygiene a key component of health and safety in organizations.
Lessons learned from the past year have emphasized the need for collective action to once and for all address the historical neglect of hand hygiene investments, policies, and programs.
As we enter a new normal post-COVID-19, our future is within reach.
The goal of Global Handwashing Day is to remind people around the world of the need to adhere to hand hygiene in healthcare facilities and others, thus protecting healthcare workers and patients from the risk of infection transmission, and it is celebrated annually on October 15th, and the main objective of this day is realizing that handwashing is one of the most effective actions we can take to reduce spread of pathogens and prevent infection, including coronavirus (COVID-19), and health workers and community members alike can play a role in preventing infection, by practicing regular hand washing.
Objectives:
- Awareness of the importance of hand washing in preventing diseases and the spread of infection.
- Making hand hygiene a global priority.
- Engagement with health care workers in their role in clean care and infection prevention.
Facts:
- People often touch their eyes, nose, and mouth automatically without realizing it; Which leads to contamination of hands with germs, and transmission of infection to others, with neglect of hand hygiene.
- Research shows that washing hands with soap and water can reduce deaths due to diarrheal diseases by up to 50%.
- Researchers estimate that if everyone washes their hands routinely, one million deaths would be prevented annually.
- A large percentage of foodborne disease outbreaks spread through contaminated hands. Hand washing can reduce the risk of foodborne illnesses and other infections.
- Handwashing can reduce the risk of respiratory diseases, such as common cold, in the general population by 16-21%.
- Use of alcohol-based hand sanitizer in classrooms in the United States reduced absenteeism due to infection by about 20% overall among 16 elementary schools and 6,000 students.
- Awareness of hand washing in the community:
- Reduces diarrheal diseases in people with weakened immune systems by 58%.
- Reduces absenteeism due to digestive diseases among school children by 29-57%.
Official Date:
Globally: October 15th, 2023
Locally: Rabi' Awwal 30th, 1445H