Hand hygiene, especially in care settings, but also in the community, is a simple procedure, 
fast and low cost, which prevents the transmission of many infectious diseases. In healthcare, if done at the right times and in the right way, it saves millions of lives. For this reason, every year on 5 May, the World Health Organization - WHO launches a campaign dedicated to hand hygiene. This year the message is “Save lives. Sanitize your hands”, to keep the attention on hand hygiene high, especially in assistance and care environments.
WHO campaign for World Hand Hygiene Day 2023
The campaign theme for World Hand Hygiene Day 2023: “Together we can do more to prevent infections and antibiotic resistance in healthcare. We promote the culture of safety and quality of care. We give hand hygiene the highest priority." The claim: “Let's act together immediately – Save lives. Sanitize your hands".
The campaign objectives:
- empower and empower healthcare sector actors to scale up actions to improve hand hygiene and infection prevention and control at the point of care
- promote collaboration of the population and organizations towards the common goal of minimizing the risk of infections and antimicrobial resistance in health care.
For World Hand Hygiene Day 2023, WHO is putting civil society organizations at the center, who can lead and accelerate change at the local, national and international levels.
All professionals involved in healthcare, together with policy makers and civil society organisations, can contribute to the prevention of infections and microorganism resistance to antimicrobials by supporting action that is beneficial to health.
Every year, WHO invites healthcare facilities around the world to participate in the campaign to continue raising awareness among healthcare professionals and citizens of the importance of hand hygiene, which is a fundamental action for the health of all those who access it. to care and treatment facilities.
WHO makes available a number of materials and initiatives, including:
- web banners translated into the official languages of the United Nations
- a short video for social networks, available at the following link: “SAVE LIVES: clean your hands”
- a global webinar (Partnership in action: accelerating improvements in hand hygiene), to be held online on 5 May at 14.00-15.30 CEST to:
- highlight the main objectives and key messages of World Hand Hygiene Day 2023
- indicate how civil society can collaborate with health professionals to improve hand hygiene and infection prevention and control in places of care and treatment
- share the views and experiences of civil society in working with health organizations towards the common goal of minimizing the risk of infections and antimicrobial resistance in health care.
Registration for the webinar, in English, is available here.
- a special conference “Webber Training”, which will be held online on 5 May at 19.30 (CEST), with the speakers Prof. Didier Pittet (University of Geneva, Switzerland) and Dr. Benedetta Allegranzi (IPC Hub, WHO), to whom you can register here.
Download and disseminate the materials (Italian version)
Like every year, the Ministry of Health, in collaboration with the Istituto Superiore di Sanità - ISS, actively participates in the campaign and translates the dissemination materials:
- poster for health and social care professionals and workers
- poster for infection prevention and control professionals
- poster for women accessing health resorts
ISS initiatives
The ISS, with the participation of SIMPIOS (Italian Multidisciplinary Society for the Prevention of Hospital Infections), has prepared a distance training course entitled "Hand hygiene for the prevention and control of infections in the healthcare setting", in which it will be possible register for free from 5 May 2023 by accessing the training catalog of the ISS platform: www.eduiss.it
Furthermore, as part of the monitoring and implementation of hand hygiene programmes, the ISS will make the 2010 Hand Hygiene Self-Assessment Framework proposed by the WHO available in a computerized version on a web platform from 5 May. The framework consists of a self-assessment tool with free access and without the need for registration, which can also be performed anonymously; it is divided into 5 sections and 27 indicators and a score is assigned to each answer.
For more information, see the page on Day on the ISS site
On social networks, the campaign is promoted with the hashtags: #handhygiene #infectionprevention #cleanhands.
For more information and to consult the WHO 2023 guidance visit Campaign guide for engaging in World Hand Hygiene Day 5 May 2023.
