GOJO Supports World Health Organization's Annual Campaign

The World Health Organization (WHO) annually marks May 5 with its Save Lives: Clean Your Hands campaign. GOJO Industries, a leader in hand hygiene and skin health and inventors of PURELL® Hand Sanitizer, is a strong supporter of this campaign and works with the World Health Organization (WHO) to raise awareness and enlist hospitals across the globe to register as part of the WHO Save Lives: Clean Your Hands initiative celebrated annually on May 5.

"Healthcare-associated infections are one of the primary causes of death and suffering in hospitalized patients throughout the world, so infection prevention is rightly considered to be a cornerstone of patient safety," says professor Didier Pittet, MD, director of the infection control program at the University of Geneva Hospitals and Faculty of Medicine, and lead advisor of the WHO First Global Patient Safety Challenge: Clean Care is Safer Care.  "Encouraging hospitals and healthcare facilities to adopt the WHO 5 Moments for Hand Hygiene will contribute to a greater awareness and understanding of the importance of hand hygiene.  The campaign aims to galvanise action at the point of care to demonstrate that hand hygiene is the entrance door for reducing healthcare associated infections and improve patient safety."

GOJO is one of the founding members of the WHO initiative, Private Organizations for Patient Safety (POPS).  POPS allows the WHO and private organizations to collaboratively work toward reducing healthcare associated infections (HAIs) by improving hand hygiene education and awareness. HAIs complicate between 5 percent and 10 percent of admissions in acute care hospitals in industrialized countries and in developing countries, the risk is two to twenty times higher and the proportion of infected patients frequently exceeds 25 percent.

"The WHO campaign this year stresses the message, "It takes just 5 moments to change the world," says Jim Arbogast, GOJO vice president of hygiene sciences and public health alliances.  "We know that one of the single most important infection preventative measures is effective hand hygiene.  Our job at GOJO is to advance the science and develop solutions that make hand sanitizing highly effective, easily accessible as part of the healthcare workflow and top of mind for every healthcare worker that comes into contact with a patient.  The goal is to provide better outcomes with fewer hospital associated infections."

Major health organizations, including the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) state that handwashing and hand sanitizing with an alcohol-based hand sanitizer are critical in minimizing the spread of germs, especially during times of illness outbreaks.  To raise awareness for effective hand hygiene and the WHO initiative, GOJO is encouraging hospitals to register and join more than 16,000 hospitals in 170 nations in supporting the WHO efforts as well as providing more than 20,000 units of PURELL® Advanced Hand Sanitizer and hand hygiene materials to hospitals across the globe.

In addition, GOJO has sponsored the Canadian Patient Safety Institute's (CPSI) STOP! Clean Your Hands Program which coincides with the WHO global initiative. Canadian Healthcare facilities can get more information at www.handhygiene.ca and view educational tools and resources to assist in promoting optimal hand hygiene practices.

PURELL® Advanced Hand Sanitizer has been a critical solution to many hospitals across the world in preventing the spread of infections in healthcare settings.   Studies have consistently demonstrated the importance of using PURELL Instant Hand Sanitizer in healthcare settings where infection rates in long-term care facilities were reduced by 30 percent and 36 percent reduction in a hospital setting.

To learn more about the WHO SAVE LIVES: Clean Your Hands Global Annual Campaign, go to http://www.who.int/gpsc/5may/en/.

Source: GOJO Industries, Inc.