To support annual Hand Hygiene Awareness Day on May 5, the Department of Health is promoting hand hygiene to healthcare workers and the public through a series of events and promotional materials.
Hong Kong has supported the World Health Organisation’s first global patient safety challenge "Clean Care is Safer Care" since 2005.
This year’s theme is "See Your Hands - hand hygiene supports safe surgical care", focusing on the importance of hand hygiene to surgical patients who are at risk of infections, particularly surgical site and device-associated infections.
To echo the WHO's theme and to remind healthcare workers to make "Five Moments for Hand Hygiene" a core practice, the Centre for Health Protection has developed promotional materials to help sustain hand hygiene habits among medical workers and staff at residential care homes for the elderly.
In addition, compliance audits will be conducted in public and private hospitals.
On the community level, people are encouraged to practice hand hygiene before they take medicine or eat food, and before they touch their eyes, nose or mouth.
Such healthy practices should also be adopted after going to the toilet, sneezing or coughing and after contact with high-touch surfaces in public areas.
Teaching materials are also being distributed to kindergartens and primary and secondary schools.
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