Clean Hands Save Lives

Mafraq Hospital launches campaign to reinforce the importance of hand hygiene in the prevention and control of infection

Abu Dhabi’s Mafraq Hospital today launches a year-long hand hygiene awareness campaign entitled ‘Clean Hands Save Lives’. The campaign targets Mafraq Hospital staff, patients, and the Abu Dhabi community, especially children. The educational initiative reinforces the importance of one of the simplest methods of preventing infection - hand washing. Running for a full year, peak activities will take place in July and August 2010, and in October to coincide with Global Hand Washing Day on October 15, 2010.

Mafraq Hospital is owned and operated by the Abu Dhabi Health Services Company PJSC (SEHA), which is responsible for all the curative activities of public hospitals and clinics in Abu Dhabi. The hospital is managed by Bumrungrad International, one of the most renowned hospital management companies in Asia, which is recognised internationally for its commitment to patient care and customer service.

The hospital has created a hand hygiene mascot, ‘Habib the Hand’, designed to attract and engage children while communicating the benefits of hand hygiene. The new mascot will educate and play with young patients and their families in the children’s ward of the hospital.

“The Clean Hands Save Lives campaign is a crucial part of patient safety at Mafraq Hospital,” said John Nickens, CEO, Mafraq Hospital. “To really drive the message home, we have focused on creating a program that is cheerful, lighthearted, colourful and also educational to raise overall awareness of the benefits of hand washing.

“We are starting at the base, right here in the hospital, but also branching out into the wider community. The aim is to transform hand washing with soap from an abstract ‘good idea’ into an automatic behaviour performed in homes, schools, and across communities in the UAE.”

By October 2010, a number of interactive community activities which primarily target families will take place across Abu Dhabi. Educational materials including banners in public bathrooms and ‘hands on sticks’ will be distributed as a constant yet fun reminder of the benefits of hand washing.

Hand washing with soap is among the most effective and inexpensive ways to prevent diarrheal diseases (which can include shigellosis, typhoid and cholera) , acute respiratory infections (including SARS and bird flu) , and pneumonia, which, when combined, are responsible for the majority of child deaths .

“Hand hygiene remains the simplest and single most important measure to break the chain of infection and prevent illness,” said Gail Smith, Chief Nursing Officer, Mafraq Hospital. “Making sure you have clean hands is a basic exercise in personal hygiene that most people learn when they are young. Regular hand washing is widely promoted by everybody from mothers to infection preventionists to the World Health Organization as an effective means of keeping microorganisms and illness at bay. The Clean Hands Save Lives campaign is a new initiative, but we will keep it alive and active until we achieve 100 per cent compliance with hand hygiene recommendations.”

Although soap is available in most households around the world, observed rates of hand washing with soap at critical moments range from zero to 34 per cent . Hand washing with soap or sanitizer represents a cornerstone of public health and can be considered an affordable, accessible ‘do-it-yourself‘ vaccine.
 

View News Headlines