World Hand Hygiene Day is observed on 5th May each year to promote hand hygiene and prevent infections globally. This annual event was officially designated by the World Health Organisation (WHO) in 2009 to raise awareness about the importance of hand hygiene in healthcare and in everyday life. This year has been given the tagline of Action Saves Lives – recognising how this practice protects our health.
Objectives of World Hand Hygiene Day
These include:
- Promoting optimal hand hygiene practices,
- promote inclusion of hand hygiene for example within infection, prevention and control actions plan,
- raise awareness and
- encouraging countries to act to improve infection prevention and countries.
Why Does Hand Washing Matter? A Short History Lesson
The medical importance of handwashing was only recognised in the 19th century. In 1846, Ignaz Semmelweis, a Hungarian physician in Austria, noticed higher mortality from puerperal fever in a doctor-run maternity ward than in a midwife-run one. He concluded that doctors and students were transmitting infectious material—what we now understand as microbes—between patients due to poor hand hygiene. If you want to know more – click on this link: Keep it clean: the surprising 130-year history of hand washing – Imperial WHO Collaborating Centre
Promoting Optimal Hand Hygiene Practices
Our Health Protection Team promotes hand hygiene year-round, with key campaigns on 5 May (Hand Hygiene Day) and from 18 November (AMR Awareness Week). These are important reminders of effective handwashing, supported by our loanable training kit—available to early years settings, schools, and care homes to help check technique. Keep reading to learn more.
How Harbour Rise Rest Home Celebrated Hand Hygiene Day 2026
Written by Julia Alcock Welch, Registered Manager
At Harbour Rise, we try hard to keep infection prevention and control as something that is talked about, seen and practised every day — not just something covered during annual training or when there is an outbreak.
Although we already use UV light equipment and fluorescent gel as part of our monthly hand hygiene audits and spot checks, we were really keen to take part when additional kits were offered as part of World Hand Hygiene Day. It gave us a great opportunity to make hand hygiene fun, interactive and visible for everyone within the home.
We encouraged not only our staff team to get involved, but also our residents and visitors too. We know that infection prevention and control is a full circle. Staff help keep residents safe by washing their hands properly, but residents and visitors also help protect staff and one another by doing the same. It became a really positive talking point throughout the day, with people genuinely interested to see the results under the UV light and learn about the areas that are commonly missed when washing hands.
As part of the day, we also used UV spray on a range of surfaces around the home to help identify cleaning techniques and demonstrate how easily areas can sometimes be overlooked. After cleaning had taken place, the UV torch allowed us to visually check the effectiveness of cleaning and identify any patterns or areas for improvement. Staff found this particularly useful as it provided immediate visual feedback and encouraged discussion around good practice.
The response from staff was extremely positive, and moving forward this is something we plan to build into our regular infection control processes alongside our monthly audits and spot checks. It provides a practical and engaging way of reinforcing good practice and helps keep infection control awareness alive throughout the year.
For us, infection prevention and control is part of everyday life within the home. Good hand hygiene and effective cleaning are simple things, but they make a huge difference in helping to protect residents, visitors and staff alike.
All photos have been kindly provided by Harbour Rise Rest Home.
What is the Correct Technique?
We should be washing our hands at key points across our day including before preparing food, eating after using the toilet and contact with contaminated items – think raw meat on a chopping board! If you are working in health and care there will be other key times to wash your hands to prevent the spread of infection between those your are caring for and yourself.
It is important that use water and soap and the correct technique!
Call to Action: Borrow Health Protection’s Hand Washing Training Kit
Book your no-cost hand hygiene training kit today. It includes a UV box, UV gel, further resources and full instructions to help your team identify missed areas when handwashing—visible as glowing spots under UV light.
Don’t miss out—email [email protected] now to find out more or arrange delivery to your workplace.
