Hand Hygiene: from an iconoclastic idea to a technology driven scientific practice

Dr. Vardeep Singh Dhillon

Volume : VI, Issue : IV, April - 2016

Hand Hygiene: from an iconoclastic idea to a technology driven scientific practice

Dr. Vardeep Singh Dhillon

Abstract :

Dr. Holmes and Dr. Semmelweis, working independently in Austria and United States, observed that doctors’ unwashed hands were the cause of cross infection among patients. Ironically their colleagues vehemently opposed this idea, which ran counter to the popularly held beliefs. In the subsequent decades, with greater understanding of infectious agents and their modes of transmission, an evidence–based link was established between poor hand hygiene and incidence of nosocomial infections. Guidelines were later prepared by Centre for Disease Control (CDC) and World Health Organization (WHO) to standardize the process of implementing hand hygiene interventions. WHO’s multimodal strategy and modern monitoring technologies are playing a significant role to improve knowledge, availability of hand hygiene agents and compliance rates around the world.