Key facts and figures

Key facts and figures

World Hand Hygiene Day 2023

WHO
© Credits

High-level messaging 

  • Infection and antimicrobial resistance (AMR) spread in health care settings leads to an incalculable burden in terms of human suffering, health impact and economic losses.  Preventing infection and its spread can have huge benefits in reducing this impact and producing economic advantages. 
  • No one receiving or providing health care should be exposed to the risk of being harmed by preventable infections. 
  • Hygiene and cleanliness provide dignity and are a sign of respect to those who are seeking care and facilitate the work of those delivering it .
  • 5 reasons to invest in IPC: 1) ensures quality of care and ensures patient and HW safety; 2) directly improves key health outcomes and saves lives; 3) reduces health care costs and out of pocket expenses; 4) consists of proves strategies and implementation aids; 5) scalable and adaptable to local context. 
  • Hand hygiene saves millions of lives every year when performed at the right times and in the right way during health care delivery. It is a minimum requirement for every health facility in the world.  
  • Hand hygiene is not a luxury. Hand hygiene is relevant to all health workers, patients and their families at every single health care encounter.  
  • To avoid infections, use alcohol-based hand rub or wash hands with soap and water – there are solutions even where infrastructure and resources are limited. 
  • Health workers, patients and visitors should be able to access hand hygiene infrastructure and products where care is provided.  Commitment to water supply, soap, clean towels and alcohol-based hand rub means clean, safe hands.   


Burden of health care-associated infections (HAIs)

  • HAIs are among the most frequent adverse events occurring in the context of health service delivery – they harm patients, visitors and health workers and place a significant burden on health systems, including the associated increased costs. 
  • Out of every 100 patients in acute-care hospitals, seven patients in high-income countries (HICs) and 15 in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) will acquire at least one HAI during their hospital stay.  
  • In Europe, some 9 million HAIs occur every year in acute and long-term care facilities. In acute health care facilities they lead to 25 million extra hospital days and costing €13–24 billion. 
  • The impact of HAIs and antimicrobial resistance on people’s lives is incalculable. Over 24% of patients affected by health care-associated sepsis and 52.3% of those patients treated in an intensive care unit die each year. Deaths are increased two to threefold when infections are resistant to antimicrobials.
  • Of every 100 patients in acute-care hospitals, seven patients in high-income countries and 15 patients in low- and middle-income countries will acquire at least one HAI during their hospital stay. On average, 1 in every 10 affected patients will die from their HAI.
  • People in intensive care and newborns are particularly at risk.  Approximately 1 in 4 hospital-treated sepsis cases and almost half of all cases of sepsis with organ dysfunction treated in adult intensive-care units are health care-associated.
  • Risk of HAIs can cause anxiety and suffering in patients, so the costs extend from financial to psychological and emotional. 
  • Reduced rates of HAIs = reduced patient and family suffering, reduced need for hospitalization and treatment = financial savings + reduced societal impact of illness + reduced antimicrobial resistance.  


Health worker behaviour & country capacities 

  • HICs are more likely to be progressing their IPC work and are 8x more likely to have a more advanced IPC implementation status than LICs.  Indeed, little improvement was seen between 2018 and 2021 in the implementation of IPC national programmes in low-income countries, despite increased attention being paid generally to IPC due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
  • Approximately 70% of health care workers and 50% of surgical teams do not routinely practice hand hygiene (even though studies have shown that it achieves a reduction in HAIs).
  • Among 166 surveyed countries, approximately one in 10 do not have a national IPC programme or operational plan; 1 in 4 has a programme, but not fully implemented; only 38% (mostly HICs) have a national IPC programme implemented nation-wide (2021-22 data).
  • Only 16% of health care facilities met all minimum requirements for IPC programmes (none in LICs) - 2019 WHO global survey.
  • Workplace campaigns are an effective, low-cost way to enhance the image of HH to key audiences.   

Benefit of investing in IPC/hand hygiene

  • Effective infection prevention and control measures - including hand hygiene - prevent up to 70% HAIs.  
  • Good IPC programmes - good hand hygiene and other cost-effective practices - can reduce HAIs by 70%.
  • IPC interventions are massively cost beneficial both in monetary terms and in the prevention of infection – resulting in reduced human suffering, morbidity and mortality. 
  • IPC interventions are highly cost-effective in reducing infections and AMR in health care; the “best buy” that provides a high return on investment.  IPC programmes result in a 7–16-fold return for each $1 invested.  In particular, improving hand hygiene in health care settings could save approximately US$ 16.5 in health care expenditure for every US$ invested.
  • With 50% of health care facilities in the least developed countries (LDCs) lacking an even basic water supply, it is important to invest in IPC.  Investing in WASH services in health care facilities would incur only modest funding (3% of current government health spending in LDCs) and result in large gains that extend beyond preventing infections to an increased uptake of services, increased staff morale, and improved efficiency in delivering health services.  


COVID-19 and epidemic examples/learning 

  • Access to appropriate PPE, combined with health workers’ training on IPC, would have averted many COVID-19 infections and related deaths among health workers globally during the first six months of the pandemic, while generating substantial net savings in all regions, independent of the country income level (OECD-WHO study).
  • COVID-19 pandemic and the recent Ebola outbreaks show the cost of inaction on IPC – devastating spread of infection and a massive societal impact that extends beyond health care.