The World Health Organization (WHO) is calling on governments, healthcare institutions, and frontline workers worldwide to strengthen their commitment to hand hygiene, emphasizing it as a key measure to prevent infections and ensure safe medical care.
In a statement to mark World Hand Hygiene Day, WHO described hand hygiene as one of the most effective, affordable, and universal tools available to stop the spread of infections in healthcare settings. The organization stressed that clean hands are critical for delivering high-quality care and protecting both patients and healthcare providers.
While medical gloves are essential in situations with a risk of exposure to blood and body fluids, WHO warned that they should not be seen as a substitute for proper hand hygiene. Cleaning hands at the right times remains a cornerstone of infection prevention.
“Medical gloves can reduce the risk of infection, but they are never a replacement for hand hygiene,” said Dr. Bruce Aylward, WHO Assistant Director-General for Universal Health Coverage and Life Course.
“On this World Hand Hygiene Day, let us double down on our commitment and action to improve hand hygiene in health care settings to ensure the safety of patients and health-care workers” he added.
Hand hygiene has long been recognized as a low-cost intervention with high impact, yet it remains inconsistently practiced in many parts of the world. WHO’s renewed appeal seeks to close that gap and integrate strong hygiene practices as a permanent feature of healthcare delivery systems.
As health systems around the world continue to respond to evolving threats, including antimicrobial resistance and emerging infectious diseases, WHO emphasized that clean hands save lives — and that the time to act is now.
Gloves are protective but not foolproof or without problems
Gloves can become contaminated just like hands and are often misused, such as being worn indefinitely while health workers switch between patients or when they are performing multiple procedures for the same patient. Additionally, overuse of gloves contributes to environmental degradation.
An average university hospital in a developed country generates 1634 tons of health-care waste each year, which is equivalent to over 360 African elephants. Much of the waste could have been avoided if gloves were used properly and good hand hygiene was practiced. Most used gloves are considered infectious and require high-temperature incineration or specialized treatment, adding strain to already burdened waste management systems.
The global health body, WHO is therefore urging stakeholders, policymakers, and the global health community to take decisive steps to promote rational glove use and reinforce hand hygiene practices in healthcare environments.
As part of the Global Action Plan and Monitoring Framework on Infection Prevention and Control (IPC), 2024–2030, WHO recommends the following actions:
- stablish hand hygiene compliance as a national health system performance indicator by 2026 in line with the Global action plan and monitoring framework on infection prevention and control (IPC), 2024-2030;
- Align national efforts on hand hygiene with the WHO guidelines on hand hygiene in health care;
- Train health workers on appropriate use of gloves and the WHO guidance called the 5 moments for hand hygiene;
- Focus on reducing unnecessary glove use to minimize health care waste; provide the necessary resources to enable hand hygiene to be practiced at the point of care; and
- Prevent glove misuse by keeping enough good-quality gloves accessible.
This year’s World Hand Hygiene Day is being observed under the theme: “It might be gloves. It is always hand hygiene.”
