Page 62 - CIJ March 2024 - Digital Edition

Making a Point

Institutional Hand Hygiene

Reduce Illness &

Absenteeism at

Workplace

Hand hygiene is one of the most important
elements to control infection and its spread across

institutional settings, such as food, hospitality,
academic centres, and mainly hospitals and healthcare
segments. Improved hand hygiene has the potential to
reduce morbidity and mortality from infections, spread
by faecal-oral routes and person-to-person contact.

ven though the requirement washing physically removes dirt, food a range of other hygiene behaviours,
for hand washing/sanitization waste, grease and harmful bacteria many still become sick in the
is universal, each workplace and viruses from the hands. Besides workplace/offices, where viruses
setting requires a unique routine hand washing facilities, special and bacteria can survive for hours
Eapproach to accomplish hand washing facilities are fitted with to months on inanimate surfaces.
effectiveness out of this practice. non-hand operated taps after handling Researchers swabbing 4,800 surfaces in
The hospital staff touch a lot of high-risk food items e.g. abattoirs, office buildings found ‘‘officially dirty’’
items during the day, so being diligent butchering areas, meat, fish, eggs and readings were highest on break room
about hand hygiene is critical. On an poultry products. sink faucet handles (75% incidence
average, the nursing staff touch up to Food Safety and Standards of being dirty), microwave door
15 different surfaces during a single Authority of India (FSSAI) has put handles (48% incidence of being dirty),
patient interaction. Every one of those out several detailed documents, computer keyboards (27% incidence
surfaces has germs on it, so it makes videos and pictorial booklets for the of being dirty), and refrigerator door
sense that cleaning hands along with benefit of food business operators at handles (26% incidence of being dirty).
correct usage of PPEs, such as gloves various levels to follow ‘Safe Good
between patients to control hospital Handling & Hygiene and Safety As per UNICEF data, hand
associated infections. Practices for Food Handlers’. hygiene reduces annual deaths from
World Health Organization (WHO) Hand Hygiene practices in respiratory diseases by 21%; halves
has laid down guidelines on hand children and at academic centres the incidence of COVID-19, reduces
hygiene in health care support, ‘Hand goes a long way in reducing annual deaths from diarrhoeal
Hygiene Promotion and Improvement morbidity and mortality rates as diseases by 30%, reduces healthcare
in Health-care Facilities’, which well as absenteeism. School going facility infections by 50% and
is complemented by the ‘WHO children are spending significant generates $15 in economic returns for
Multimodal Hand Hygiene amounts of time in school and they each dollar invested.
Improvement Strategy’, that includes are in close contact with each other, Institutions can assure hand
an implementation toolkit containing sharing school materials right from hygiene by providing the right
many ready-to-use practical tools. chairs to the desk, to crayons, to infrastructure, hold regular sessions
Again, correctly washing hands germs. Therefore, hand washing is an on awareness & training, have
across different segments of food effective way to prevent the spread of monitoring program to ensure
businesses, mainly the commercial common school illnesses like cold, implementation and use products
kitchens of hotels, restaurants, meat pinkeye, flu, and those associated with proven efficacy against the
and dairy industry require stringent with enteric infections, such as target germs.
measures to minimise the risk of diarrhoea and dysentery.
foodborne illness associated with Despite increasing awareness of Compiled by Dr Sandhya Shrivastava,
their activities. Thorough hand the importance of hand washing and Director, Bhavan’s Research Center CIJ

MARCH 2024•Clean India Journal
62 www.cleanindiajournal.com