What Is the Connection Between Infection Control and Hand Hygiene?

Hand hygiene is a general term for hand washing, sanitary hand disinfection and surgical hand disinfection. Hand hygiene is mainly a measure for the risk of cross-infection in the work of medical staff. It is an important means of nosocomial infection control. Through hand hygiene, hospital infections can be effectively reduced, and sensory control workshops can assist hospital staff to better supervise hand hygiene work.

Hand hygiene

Hand hygiene products mainly include soap and alcohol-containing hand sanitizers ^[1]

First, alcohol-based hand disinfectants have the advantages of fast, broad-spectrum, excellent bactericidal activity, and non-drug resistance. Hand sanitizing products do not require sustained action, and alcohol-based rubs are the only products that minimize and inhibit microbial activity. Secondly, this method overcomes the difficulty of washing hands with water and equipment such as a sink. Third, the method has the advantages of short hand washing time, convenience, and improved hand washing compliance. Finally, this method saves costs, and the annual cost of using alcohol-based hand rubs will not exceed 1% of the economic loss caused by hospital infections ^[2]

A large amount of data shows that maintaining hand hygiene is the most basic, simple and effective way to effectively prevent and control the spread of pathogens, thereby reducing the incidence of nosocomial infections. In particular, ICU hospital infection is higher than that of ordinary wards, and the infection process is complicated. The hands of medical staff, including nursing staff, are most likely to come into contact with critical patients during diagnosis and treatment.

It is reported in the literature that in general nursing operations, the amount of bacterial contamination on the hand is generally (103-105) cfu / cm2; when the work is busy, the amount of bacterial contamination on the hand doubles, and the nurse sucks sputum from the patient to 106cfu / cm2 , Wash the patient's perineal hands and contaminate bacteria as much as 1010cfu / cm2 or more. Medical staff contacted patients or did not wash their hands after contamination. The total bacterial excess rate was 100%, and the rate of Gram-negative bacilli carried by ICU staff was over 80%. One third of hospital infections can be effectively controlled through strict hand hygiene. After washing hands with soap, the amount of bacteria in the hands of medical staff decreased by 65% -84% compared with the amount of bacteria in the hands during operation, and the more hands were washed, the more hands The more obvious the bacteria decrease, so paying attention to hand hygiene is the key to controlling nosocomial infections.