Each year the SAVE LIVES: Clean Your Hands campaign aims to progress the goal of maintaining a global profile on the importance of hand hygiene in health care and to ‘bring people together’ in support of hand hygiene improvement globally.

Preventing infections and reducing an avoidable burden on health systems is still critical around the world today and is part of making sure every health-care setting is safe for treating every single patient. Improving hand hygiene practices in all surgical services through the continuum of care, from surgical wards to operating theatres, to outpatient surgical services, is the primary focus of this year’s 5 May campaign.

The 2016 campaign focuses on “Hand hygiene as part of an infection prevention and control programme in all setting that support surgery, prevents patient infection and reduces an avoidable burden on health systems”.