WHO’s global annual call to action for healthcare workers
5 May 2018: It’s in your hands – prevent sepsis in healthcare
Sepsis is estimated to affect more than 30 million patients every year worldwide. While it often occurs prior to a patient’s access to the health facility, sepsis can also result from care provided in health facilities, particularly, healthcare-associated infections (HAIs), and also complicate HAIs themselves. Effective infection prevention and control (IPC) such as hand hygiene can help prevent sepsis in healthcare, and so the World Health Organisation (WHO) is asking for support and action in the run-up to the upcoming 5 May 2018 global hand hygiene campaign.
The 2018 Global Hand Hygiene Campaign slogan is ‘It’s in your hands – prevent sepsis in healthcare’. The calls to action for various target groups to support the slogan are as follows:
• Health workers – ‘Take 5 Moments to clean your hands to prevent sepsis in healthcare’
• IPC leaders – ‘Be a champion in promoting hand hygiene to prevent sepsis in healthcare’
• Health facility leaders – ‘Prevent sepsis in healthcare, make hand hygiene a quality indicator in your hospital’
• Ministries of health – ‘Implement the 2017 WHA* sepsis resolution. Make hand hygiene a national marker of healthcare quality’
• Patient advocacy groups – ‘Ask for 5 Moments of clean hands to prevent sepsis in healthcare’
*World Health Assembly
How can you get involved in this year’s campaign?
- Promote the slogan and calls to action in your region/hospital/unit
- Encourage health facilities to sign up to the campaign
- Feature the campaign on your regional webpages or link to the WHO-HQ SLCYH campaign pages
- Use #handhygiene #sepsis on social media
Campaign resources such as posters, videos and practical tools will be available on the SLCYH webpage (http://www.who.int/infection-prevention/campaigns/clean-hands/en/). Free webinars, and teleclasses are also offered to further support the action for hand hygiene promotion and prevention of sepsis in healthcare.
For all of the details on the 2018 Save Lives Clean Your Hands Campaign (SLCYH), read the February Newsletter from Dr. Benedetta Allegranzi, head of the WHO HQ IPC Global Unit.
