Dear Colleagues
5 May 2010 is only 7 months away. Our new target is to increase registrations to 10,000 and for this we need YOUR help.
One of the best ways of achieving this target is to cascade news and information and encourage action. By registering for WHO SAVE LIVES: Clean Your Hands facilities will know that they are part of a global movement to improve hand hygiene. We need to reach our target of 10,000 by May 2010 to reaffirm to the world that hand hygiene improvement and sustainability continue to be real and critical priorities for health care.
How can you help?
- Send a message to five colleagues in other health facilities and invite them to register
- Challenge your infection control association/society to get involved and help spread the word, and work with your national campaign if one exists (see http://www.who.int/gpsc/national_campaigns/en/)
- Write something for your local newspaper/newsletter to invite registration from those in other locations
For more information about the current registration processes, go online to < a href=http://www.who.int/gpsc/5may/register/en/index.html>http://www.who.int/gpsc/5may/register/en/index.html..
Conferences on Infection Prevention and Control:
Every year, many thousands of health-care workers gather to participate in conferences relating to infection prevention and control. Some of the First Challenge team have presented at several of these events recently. We hope that some of you were able to attend the excellent 10th International Federation for Infection Control Congress in Lithuania. It featured many topical sessions and the First Challenge team were pleased to be featured so prominently. Our key message to all health-care workers this year has been the importance of taking action to improve and sustain hand hygiene including the use of WHO's 'My 5 Moments for Hand Hygiene'. Without the support and enthusiasm of those who are willing to listen to these messages, action to prevent health care-associated infection might not be achieved. The First Challenge team have been enthused by and very much appreciated the support of such conferences and their attendees.
Hand Hygiene Implementation Tools:
Last month we said that updated tools had been placed on the web pages with a new opening message about where to start when using these tools. We hope that you are using them as suitable for your care setting situation.
Translations:
The process of translating all of the available hand hygiene tools into the official WHO languages takes several months. By way of an update; the French translations have begun, we have sourced a Russian translator and we are exploring the options for Spanish translations. It is a long process but be assured we are working on this constantly and hope to have most of them completed by the end of the year with a view to making them available on the website.
Feedback on producing the WHO alcohol-based handrub formulation:
We are eager to hear from those hospitals, regions and/or countries who are producing their own WHO alcohol-based handrub formulation. We are hoping to issue a short survey on this in the coming months but in the meantime if you want to provide us with any information on this please email savelives@who.int
All information about the First Challenge team are available at: and http://www.who.int/gpsc/background/en/index.html And, if you have any specific enquiries, as usual send them to savelives@who.int