Experts have identified hand hygiene as an effective and cheap way to prevent infections in Nigeria especially at the point of care.
They made this public when Federal Medical Center (FMC), Jabi in collaboration with Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), commemorates World Hand Hygiene Day!, in Abuja.
The global campaign slogan is ‘Seconds save lives – clean your hands’ with the global theme for 2021 is ‘Achieving hand hygiene at the point of care’.
Speaking during the campaign, the Director General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu said hand hygiene is very effective and cheap way of preventing spread of infectious diseases.
The DG who was represented by Dr Chinwe Ochu at the occasion said it is imperative spread of infectious diseases at the point of care.
She lamented that some health care workers have lost their lives over being infected at point of care, which is unacceptable.
” We should all be committed to zero infection at the point of care and the only way we can achieve this is through hand hygiene. And NCDC is committed and cannot do it alone. All hand must be on desk in order to achieve this”, he said.
Also, Chairperson of the Infection Prevention Control Committee, (IPCC), Dr Nkolika Uwaezuoke said the save lives: clean your hands annual global campaign was launched in 2009 by the world health organization as part of a major global effort to improve hand hygiene. She said that the campaign is celebrated annually on the 5th of May and has come to be known globally as the “world hand washing day”
“The main aim of this campaign is to maintain global promotion, visibility and sustainability of hand hygiene within the healthcare settings and to bring people together in support of hand hygiene improvement around the world, adding that the hand care hygiene day therefore focuses on the importance of improving hand hygiene within the health setting”.
Meanwhile, Prof. Sa’ad Ahmed, the Medical Director of FMC, Jabi, in his address at the occasion said issues of infectious diseases is a major concern to the whole world and therefore it is imperative for all hands to be on desk to prevent spread of diseases by making hand hygiene a priority.
According to him, “The whole essence of this campaign is to create awareness the importance of hand hygiene.
” Most infectious diseases are transmitted by hand. From the point of care , there is a circle of transmission of infectious
Diseases and it is imperative to break the circle by simple things like hand hygiene. We must stop the transmission by having the highest hand hygiene”.
