On 5 May each year, the World Health Organisation aims to progress the goal of maintaining a global profile on the importance of hand hygiene in healthcare with their  SAVE LIVES: Clean Your Hands campaign. It also aims to bring people together in support of hand hygiene improvement globally.

This year’s theme is ‘Clean care for all – it’s in your hands’, focusing on hand hygiene being practised in all care settings including care homes and by all staff and visitors.

The campaign encourages infection prevention and control teams in acute facilities to monitor infection prevention and control standards and take part in the WHO global survey on infection prevention and control to provide a global picture of practice.

The campaign also highlights that the 5 moments for hand hygiene should be used in all car settings including:

• GP surgeries
• primary care
• dentistry
• care homes

Further information on WHO hand hygiene day including registering, completion of the survey and promotional materials can be found on the WHO website.