GOJO Supports World Health Organization's SAVE LIVES: Clean Your Hands Annual Global Campaign
WHO campaign raises awareness for important role hand hygiene plays in reducing the spread of infection in healthcare settings.
Apr 28, 2015, 09:32 ET
AKRON, Ohio, April 28, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- The World Health Organization (WHO) annually marks May 5th 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 once again proud to support this campaign, through being part of the WHO's Private Organizations for Patient Safety (POPS), and by raising awareness for and enlisting hospitals across the globe to register as part of the WHO Save Lives: Clean Your Hands initiative.
The WHO SAVE LIVES: Clean Your Hands annual campaign was launched in 2009 to demonstrate that hand hygiene is one of the most important and first steps you can take to reduce healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) and enhance patient safety. This campaign also serves as a platform to demonstrate the world's commitment to hand hygiene in healthcare.
"The campaign aims to encourage action at the point of care to demonstrate that hand hygiene is the entrance door for reducing healthcare-associated infections and improve patient safety," said Professor Didier Pittet, M.D., director, infection control programme, University of Geneva Hospitals and Faculty of Medicine and Lead Advisor, WHO Challenge Clean Care is Safer Care Programme. "We hope that hospitals and healthcare facilities from around the world will join together on May 5th to highlight the important role hand hygiene plays in keeping healthcare workers and patients safe."
GOJO is one of the founding members of the WHO initiative, POPS. POPS allows WHO and private organizations to collaboratively work towards reducing HAIs by improving hand hygiene education and awareness. HAIs complicate between 5 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.1
"This year WHO is focused on making 'hand hygiene your entrance door,'" said Jim Arbogast, Ph.D., GOJO vice president of hygiene sciences and public health advancements. "This emphasizes the fact that hand hygiene is one of the most important infection prevention steps a healthcare worker can take. At GOJO, the safety of healthcare workers and patients is top of mind. Because of this, we focus on bringing solutions to our customers that help improve hand hygiene compliance and ultimately help reduce infections."
Major health organizations, including the 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 17,000 hospitals in 171 nations in supporting the WHO's efforts as well as providing more than 35,000 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 Day 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 percent2 and 36 percent reduction in a hospital setting.3
To learn more about the WHO SAVE LIVES: Clean Your Hands Global Annual Campaign, go to http://www.who.int/gpsc/5may/en/.
About GOJO
GOJO Industries, Inc. (www.gojo.com) is the inventor of PURELL® Advanced Instant Hand Sanitizer, and the leading global producer and marketer of skin health and hygiene solutions for away-from-home settings. The broad GOJO product portfolio includes hand cleaning, handwashing, hand sanitizing and skin care formulas under the GOJO®, PURELL® and PROVON® brand names. GOJO formulations use the latest advances in the science of skin care and sustainability. GOJO is known for state-of-the-art dispensing systems, engineered with attention to design, sustainability and functionality. GOJO programs promote healthy behaviors for hand hygiene, skin care and compliance in critical environments. GOJO is a privately held corporation headquartered in Akron, with offices in the United Kingdom, France, Australia, Japan and Brazil.
1 Pittet D, Allegranzi, B, Storr, S, Bagheri N, Dziekan G, Leotsako A, Donaldson, L. Infection control as a major World Health Organization priority for developing countries. Journal of Hospital Infection. 2008, 68: 285-292.
2 Fendler EJ, Ali Y, Hammond BS. Lyons MK, Kelly MB, Vowell NA, The impact of alcohol hand sanitizer on infection control in an extended care facility. Am J Infect Control. 2002, 30:226-233.
3 Hilburn J. Texas Society of Infection Control Practitioners; Fendler EJ, Groziak PA, Hammond BS, The Use of Alcohol Hand Sanitizer as an Effective Infection Control Strategy in an Acute Care Facility. Am J Infect Control. 2002 Jun; 30(4): 226-33.
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