The Regional Director for Health will present the National Awareness Campaign for hand hygiene in the city of Angra do Heroísmo on Thursday, a campaign which will include healthcare professionals from the three Azorean Hospitals.

The presentation of this initiative is scheduled for 10 am at the Solar dos Remédios, and it is intended to celebrate the “International Day of Fighting Infection” in the Region.

The celebration of the aforementioned day is the result of an initiative from the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ESCMID) with the purpose of contributing for the reduction of healthcare-associated infections in Europe.

Hospital-acquired infections are a public health problem of great human and economic impact. Global researches have demonstrated that a significant percentage of hospital inpatients contracts infections in hospitals, resulting in an increase in the number of hospitalisation days and in added costs.

Hand hygiene is the most important measure with regard to the prevention and control of healthcare-associated infections; however, it is expected that the healthcare professionals’ adherence to this measure will not exceed 50 % worldwide.

So, the World Health Association (WHO) through its Global Strategy from the World Alliance for Patient Safety proposes a standardised methodology to promote hand hygiene to be adopted by all countries. 

The Regional Directorate for Health has joined this initiative, through the adherence of the three Azorean hospitals and a subsequent extension to healthcare centres of the Archipelago.