For World Hand Hygiene Day 2026, WHO calls on all those providing and supporting health care to refresh their action on hand hygiene and infection prevention and control (IPC), to ensure patient and health worker safety.
A substantial proportion of avoidable infections acquired during health care delivery could be prevented if hand hygiene and IPC action were taken at the correct times. Such action provides a high return on investment within health system expenditure and a significant positive effect on health outcomes for countries.
This session aims to highlight the importance of taking action to improve hand hygiene and IPC in health care and examples of global advancement.
OBJECTIVES:
- To promote inclusion of hand hygiene within national IPC action plans, as well as standard operating procedures at facility level
- To raise awareness about the WHO global action plan and monitoring framework indicator on hand hygiene compliance monitoring and feedback
- To highlight examples of IPC and hand hygiene improvements and encourage country action.