World Hand Hygiene Day - 5th May

As part of a major global effort to improve hand hygiene in health care, the World Health Organisation launched the SAVE LIVES: Clean Your Hands annual campaign in 2009. This all-important initiative aims to maintain a global profile on the importance of hand hygiene in healthcare.

At the core of the SAVE LIVES: Clean Your Hands message is all healthcare workers should clean their hands at the right time and in the right way.

Hand hygiene when performed at the right time and in the right way is the simplest most effective way to prevent the spread of infection. It is a critical component of any infection prevention and control program in the hospital and healthcare environment where patient safety and staff well-being is paramount.

To help promote the important message about hand hygiene in healthcare, we have created 3 new resources that support this year's World Hand Hygiene Day message, 'It might be gloves. It's always hand hygiene'. These resources can be downloaded and printed in colour or black and white, in A5, A4 or A3 size.

And this year, there is something for the little ones in your care further down the page.

A selection of posters from the World Health Organisation 2025 campaign can be downloaded here. These posters are also available in several other languages including Arabic and Chinese and can be accessed directly from the WHO International website. WHO World Hand Hygiene Day Campaign

Print in A4 or A3 size.