PHA-Exchange> UN HEALTH AGENCY: CLEANER HANDS WILL REDUCE MAJOR DISEASE SPREAD, INCLUDING PANDEMICS

[Claudio]

From: "Vern Weitzel" <vern.weitzel at undp.org>

With 1.4 million people worldwide falling seriously ill at any time due to
health care-associated
infections, the United Nations World Health Organization
(<"http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2005/pr55/en/index.html">WHO
) announced that it is
launching a major campaign to reduce hand-spread infections, including major
pandemic diseases such
as the avian flu.

The hand hygiene guidelines will be launched by WHO in conjunction with
ministers of health, senior
officials and technical experts, and are part of the agency’s ‘Clean Care is
Safer Care’ programme,
a series of actions they are undertaking to reduce health care-associated
infections, known as
nosocomial infections, such as the spread of disease from hand contact,
blood safety and injection,
clinical practices, and water, sanitation and waste management.

“[We] have developed low-cost strategies to fight this global challenge,”
WHO Director-General Lee
Jong-wook said. “Implementing these strategies is the best way to prevent
health care-associated
infection and improve safety,” he added.

Hand hygiene still remains the primary measure to reduce health
care-associated infections and the
spread of antimicrobial resistance, and is equally effective in small
facilities as in large
hospital complexes, said the agency, noting that that during a new influenza
pandemic, “the huge
number of patients seeking care will pose a challenge to health services and
greatly increase the
risk of spread.”

And although “transmission by large droplets when people cough or sneeze is
considered the major
route of influenza spread, transmission via contaminated hands may be a
contributing factor,” the
agency said.

The agency estimates that between 5 and 10 per cent of patients admitted to
hospitals in developed
countries have contracted their infections through health care-associated
contamination, a number
which can jump to 25 per cent in developing countries.  According to studies
conducted in three
Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries,
between $7 billion and $8.5
billion dollars are lost each year by these countries due to health
care-associated infections.

  The ‘Hand Hygiene in Health Care’ guidelines were developed by over 100
technical experts over a
year’s time, said the agency, and will be tested in different health care
settings over six WHO regions.

For more details go to UN News Centre at http://www.un.org/news