Saltar al contenido principal

NCDC Weekly Epidemiological Report: Issue: Volume 12 No.15. 4th May 2021

Países
Nigeria
Fuentes
Govt. Nigeria
Fecha de publicación
Origen
Ver original

Nigeria Commemorates World Hand Hygiene Day

Globally, promotion of hand hygiene is one of the cost effective public health interventions for the prevention and control of infections, particularly those caused by epidemic-prone pathogens. In line with this, the World Health Organisation launched the World Hand Hygiene Day which is celebrated every year. This event is part of the global advocacy efforts to mobilise citizens around the world to imbibe a general culture of handwashing with soap and running water, and the use of alcohol-based hand sanitisers.

The theme for this year’s event is “Achieving hand hygiene at the point of care” with the slogan “Seconds Save Lives – Clean Your Hands. In recognition of the importance of public awareness of hand hygiene, Nigeria joined the global community to commemorate the World Hand Hygiene Day on the 5thof May, 2021. The national sub-theme “One Nation, One Plan: Turn Nigeria Orange” is a recognition of the “Orange Network Project” which was launched by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) in 2019. This is a network of tertiary health facilities in Nigeria which aims at promoting centers of excellence in infection prevention and control.

As part of her activities to mark this year’s event, the NCDC in collaboration with the Federal Medical Centre, Abuja organised a lecture on the importance of hand hygiene in health care settings. This further highlighted the priority given to the safety of health care workers (HCWs) by the NCDC. Some of our key partners - Infection Control Africa Network, Nigeria Society for Infection Control, Dr. Ameyo Stella Adadevoh Health Trust (DRASA), Africa Centre for Disease Control (Africa CDC), the World Health Organisation (WHO)' etc. also lent their voices and encouraged all to take responsibility to promote hand hygiene with key messages as follows:

  1. Health Care Workers: Now more than ever, clean your hands at the point of care!

  2. Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) practitioners: Be a champion and mentor colleagues on clean hands at the point of care!

  3. Facility Managers: Ensure hand hygiene supplies are available at every point of care!

  4. Policymakers: Invest now to ensure hand hygiene for all!

  5. Patients and families: Wash your hands regularly, clean hands save lives!

  6. Vaccinators: Clean your hands with every vaccination!

  7. Everyone: Make washing your hands a regular habit – it protects us all!

An important outcome from this year’s event was the strong collaboration with stakeholders particularly in the area of IPC. We strongly believe that the afore-listed key messages when implemented will also contribute to the control of the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak in Nigeria.

The NCDC remains committed to working closely with all relevant stakeholders in promoting hand hygiene-practices among HCWs and the public at large.

Summary of Incidents

  1. Information for this disease was retrieved from the Technical Working Group and Situation Reports

  2. Case Fatality Rate (CFR) for this disease is reported for confirmed cases only

  3. Information for this disease was retrieved from IDSR 002 data

  4. CFR for this disease is reported for total cases i.e. suspected + confirmed

  5. Information for sentinel influenza was retrieved from the laboratory