Message of the WHO Regional Director for Africa, Dr Luis G. Sambo, on the occasion of the 2014 annual campaign: “Save Lives: clean your hands”

Today, 5 May 2014, we mark the annual global campaign “SAVE LIVES: Clean your hands”. The theme of this year is “No action today; no cure tomorrow – make sure the WHO 5 Moments are part of protecting your patients from resistant germs”.

Healthcare Associated Infections (HCAI), or infections acquired in health-care settings are the most frequent adverse event in health care delivery worldwide. Hundreds of millions of patients are affected by HCAI worldwide each year, resulting in prolonged hospital stays, long-term disability, and consequent massive additional costs for health systems, high costs for patients and their families, even unnecessary deaths. Despite the limited and low-quality data on the endemic burden of these infections in the African region, a recent review reveals that their frequency is much higher in the region than in developed countries, with a hospital-wide prevalence of between 5.7 % and 19.1%. Infants and children are also affected with more than half of all infants housed in units for newborns suffering from HCAI with a fatality rate of between 4% and 56 %. Furthermore, while caring for the sick persons, health-care workers are also exposed to risks of infection transmission.

It is well established that HCAI also leads to increased resistance of microorganisms to antimicrobials, which worsens all the other consequences. In fact, a paradigm shift has occurred in our world that cannot be reversed – multidrug resistant pathogens are here to stay - we need to make sure these are managed through infection prevention actions.

Simple and effective strategies exist for preventing and reducing health-care associated infections. The single most effective way is to practice hand hygiene. Improvements in hand hygiene has been proven to minimize healthcare associated infections and consequently the spread of resistant antimicrobial agents. This practice should therefore be promoted as the entry point for subsequently enforcing other essential preventive measures.

However, hand hygiene is still not practiced properly in many African health settings.

This campaign led by WHO is aimed at accelerating and sustaining improvements in hand hygiene practices at the point of care. Its objectives are to:

  • Highlight the importance of hand hygiene best practices to prevent antimicrobial resistance (AMR) spread and  as part of the  patient safety agenda in every country;
  • To encourage health-care facilities and hand hygiene national campaigns in the region to focus their plans and activities on improved and sustained hand hygiene practices with focus on monitoring and feedback; and patient participation in hand hygiene promotion.

I am calling upon health leaders, managers, health-care workers, consumer associations and related bodies in the African region to implement a true safety culture in which both patients, (their relatives and visitors) and health care workers work together towards strengthening infection prevention and control, by promoting hand hygiene best practices. While the responsibility for hand hygiene remains firmly with the health-care workers, patients should support them in improving hand hygiene by practicing it.

I strongly encourage healthcare workers in Africa to have a behavioral change  of a patient-centered care environment. This includes adhering to stopping the spread of drug-resistant germs through the improvement of their hand hygiene practices.

I also call upon Member States to take advantage of this year’s Hand hygiene campaign to sensitize on the real threat of healthcare associated infections in our region and consolidate our efforts to improve hand hygiene within our health services. No action today, means more heath care associated infections tomorrow.

Thank you.