The importance of hand hygiene in the prevention of healthcare-associated infections

Healthcare-associated infections (HCAI) emerge as an important health problem in Turkey and all over the world. Such infections cause mortality and morbidity, other additional diseases, prolongation of the duration of treatment and hospitalization, emotional stress, increase in the number of patients requiring isolation, additional costs for the hospital and economic losses. However, healthcare-associated infections can be significantly prevented when appropriate precautions are taken, and adequate hand hygiene is provided. Hand hygiene is the most effective and least expensive method to prevent healthcare-associated infections. The first condition of providing appropriate hand hygiene is to inform health personnel about the importance of hand hygiene, to provide training on hand hygiene and to organize inspections. Because pathogenic microorganisms are transmitted from patient to patient through the hands of health personnel. Appropriate isolation measures and hand hygiene are applied to prevent the transmission of pathogenic microorganisms. In many studies, it has been observed that 30% of healthcare-associated infections can be prevented by hand hygiene alone. Infection control committees should be established to prevent healthcare-associated infections, regular surveillance should be carried out in hospitals, and most importantly, continuous training of healthcare personnel should come. In order for trainings to turn into behaviors, continuous hand hygiene observations should be made, and feedback should be given to the employees.