Personal hygiene Hygiene is multi-faceted and comprises many behaviours, including hand- and face washing, menstrual hygiene and food hygiene. Hand washing with soap at crucial events such as after visiting the toilet, defecating or before preparing food was estimated to be a poorly practised behaviour globally.
Safe drinking-water, sanitation and hygiene are crucial to human health and well-being. Safe WASH is not only a prerequisite to health, but contributes to livelihoods, school attendance and dignity and helps to create resilient communities living in healthy environments.
A large proportion of avoidable infections acquired during health care delivery could still be prevented with hand hygiene and infection prevention and control (IPC) action at the right times. This provides a high return on investment for health systems and countries. In this 18th year of the WHO world hand hygiene day, we call on those providing and supporting health care to refresh their ...
Hand hygiene is therefore the most important measure to avoid the transmission of harmful germs and prevent health care-associated infections. This brochure explains how and when to practice hand hygiene.
Evidence-based recommendations for homes, schools and public spaces to improve public health and reduce preventable illnessesOn Global Handwashing Day, WHO and UNICEF have released the first-ever global Guidelines on Hand Hygiene in Community Settings to support governments and practitioners in promoting effective hand hygiene outside health care – across households, public spaces and ...
New guidelines on community hand hygiene to help governments reduce the ...
This report summarizes the World Health Organization’s (WHO) global work on water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) during 2024
Promote optimal hand hygiene practices (using the appropriate technique and according to the WHO 5 Moments) and the times for appropriate glove use within the health care workflow. Promote inclusion of hand hygiene within national IPC strategies, as well as standard operating procedures (SOPs) at facility level, according to the recommendations of the WHO global action plan and monitoring ...