The Infection Prevention and Control Committee (IPC), University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH), says there is a need for  increased awareness on  multimodal strategies for hand hygiene among health care workers.

According to it, this will ensure improved compliance to hand washing among health care workers as hand hygiene cannot  be overemphasised particularly in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Prof. Darlington Obaseki, Chief Medical Director, UBTH, made the assertion during an event organised by the IPC, UBTH, to mark the 2021 World Hand Hygiene Day.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the World Hand Hygiene Day is marked annually on May 5, with the theme for 2021 as : “Achievinghand hygiene at the point of care.”

The 2021 Slogan is “Seconds save lives – clean your hands!’’

Obaseki said that the theme for 2020,  “Seconds Saves Lives’’, was apt because one can effectively wash hands within seconds, thereby saving a lot of lives from infection.

According to the  chief medical director , it is  critical to maintain clean hands through washing of hands, in order to avert transmission of pathogens such as bacteria and viral organisms that cause diseases.

“If hands are washed with soap and water regularly, it breaks the chain of transmission of infectious diseases because the soap destroys the virus.

“Simple things like these actually help in containing viruses and other pathogens like the COVID-19 virus,”  Obaseki explained.

Dr Esohe Igboghodo, Chairman of the IPC UBTH, in her presentation to  IPC ambassadors and committee members, said the workshop was to achieve hand hygiene at the point of care.

“Maintaining hands hygiene among the health workers will prevent health care associated diseases’’.

According to her, it will be absurd for patients to leave the hospital worse than they came as a result of unhygienic behaviour of health care personnel.

The chairman called for positive change and effectiveness in facilitating hygiene at point of care.

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She identified system change, training and education, reminder and communications and culture of safety as elements to achieving the much talked about hygiene.