World Hand Hygiene Day is now in its 17th year on 5 May and is an important international day of action for our OPHARDT Group.
The WHO has announced a very specific slogan for World Hand Hygiene Day 2025: “It might be gloves. It’s always hand hygiene.” is aimed at the proper use of disposable medical gloves and emphasises the importance of hand hygiene as the most important single measure for preventing infection. It is not uncommon for disposable medical gloves to be used at the wrong time and inappropriately or even wrongly regarded as a substitute for hygienic hand disinfection.
It is also remarkable to look at the environmental aspects surrounding the use of disposable medical gloves. In one German hospital alone (800 beds), over 1,300,000 disposable gloves are used every year [1].
Hand hygiene remains the gold standard for infection prevention
This makes it all the more important that we remember the five moments of hand hygiene once again. The ‘5 moments for hand hygiene’ model was launched by the World Health Organisation (WHO) in 2009 and quickly implemented at national level, for example by the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) in Germany.
- Before touching a patient
- Before aseptic procedure
- After body fluid exposure risk
- After touching a patient
- After touching patient surroundings
The indications for hand disinfection correspond to clearly defined situations from everyday medical practice in the context of patient treatment. However, as a large number of different situations for hand disinfection arise in this context, the WHO developed a highly simplified model, which ultimately resulted in the five indication groups mentioned.
OPHARDT Hygiene supports the World Hand Hygiene Day 2025
As an innovative company, we at OPHARDT Hygiene have been providing numerous dispenser systems for sustainable and effective hand hygiene for over 60 years. With our Kanary® and ingo-man® smart brands, we also focus on the continuous development of digital solutions to further optimise hand hygiene compliance in the healthcare sector.
As a long-standing member of the Private Organisation for Patient Safety (POPS), which was established by the WHO in 2012, we are also closely connected with numerous partners from research, science and industry in order to raise hygiene standards worldwide.
[1] LVR-Klinik Bedburg-Hau: Aktualisierte Umwelterklärung 2021 in der LVR-Klinik Bedburg-Hau (gem. EG-Verordnung Nr. 1221/2009 (EMAS-VO) in der Fassung vom 18.12.2018 zum validierten Umweltmanagementsystem). 2021.
[2] Kommission für Krankenhaushygiene und Infektionsprävention beim Robert Koch-Institut “Händehygiene in Einrichtungen des Gesundheitswesens.” Bundesgesundheitsblatt-Gesundheitsforschung-Gesundheitsschutz 9 (2016): 1189.
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