BMJ 1999;318:686-686 ( 13 March )

Editorials

Hand washing

A modest measurewith big effects 

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Hospital acquired infection damages patients, prolongs hospital stays, consumes scarce hospital resources, and thus presents a major challenge for clinical governance.¹ In a seminal intervention study 150 years ago Semmelweis insisted that doctors performing necropsies washed their hands before delivering babies, so reducing mortality due to streptococcal puerperal sepsis from 22% to 3%.² Many studies since have confirmed that doctors decontaminating their hands between seeing patients can reduce hospital infection rates.³ Nevertheless, healthcare workers still fail to wash their hands and fail to appreciate the importance of doing so.³ This month the Department of Health has had another attempt at reminding them by sending a document and health circular to all NHS chief executives, public health directors, and microbiologists in England.

Many observational studies, mainly conducted in intensive care units, show low rates of hand washing, especially among doctors.⁴ Bartzokas et al observed that, despite frequent patient contacts, senior doctors washed . . . [Full text of this article]

CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?

Relevant Articles

Alcohol hand rubs: hygiene and hazard

John R H Archer, David M Wood, Zoe Tizzard, Alison L Jones, and Paul I Dargan
BMJ 2007 335: 1154-1155. [Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]

GPs can improve their hand washing habits

Barbara Michiels, Dirk Avonts, Paul van Royen, and Joke Denekens
BMJ 2000 320: 869. [Extract] [Full Text]

Hand washing

Andrew Weeks, Rachel Sen, Maeve Keaney, Ann Trail, Carol Howard, Paul Chadwick, S Kesavan, C Richard B Welbourn, Steve M Jones, Paul M Hateley, P A Jurnaa, Robert MacDermott, D Varghese, H Patel, and A Majid Katme
BMJ 1999 319: 518. [Extract] [Full Text]

This article has been cited by other articles:

• Archer, J. R H, Wood, D. M, Tizzard, Z., Jones, A. L, Dargan, P. I (2007). Alcohol hand rubs: hygiene and hazard. BMJ 335: 1154-1155 [Full text]  
• Ng, P C, Wong, H L, Lyon, D J, So, K W, Liu, F, Lam, R K Y, Wong, E, Cheng, A F B, Fok, T F (2004). Combined use of alcohol hand rub and gloves reduces the incidence of late onset infection in very low birthweight infants. Arch. Dis. Child. Fetal Neonatal Ed. 89: F336-F340 [Abstract] [Full text]  
• Panhotra, B., Saxena, A., Al-Arabi, A.-G. A. (2004). The effect of a continuous educational program on handwashing compliance among healthcare workers in an intensive care unit. British Journal of Infection Control 5: 15-18 [Abstract]  
• Awofeso, N. (2004). What's New About the "New Public Health"?. Am. J. Public Health 94: 705-709 [Abstract] [Full text]  
• Stone, A. (2003). Audit of soap usage by a primary care team. BMJ 327: 1453-1454 [Full text]  
• Buchan, H (2003). Using research knowledge to improve health care. Qual Saf Health Care 12: 322-323 [Full text]  
• Wester, C. W., Durairaj, L., Evans, A. T., Schwartz, D. N., Husain, S., Martinez, E. (2002). Antibiotic Resistance: A Survey of Physician Perceptions. Arch Intern Med 162: 2210-2216 [Abstract] [Full text]  
• Teare, L., Cookson, B., Stone, S. (2001). Hand hygiene. BMJ 323: 411-412 [Full text]  
• Merry, A. F., Miller, T. E., Findon, G., Webster, C. S., Neff, S. P. W. (2001). Touch contamination levels during anaesthetic procedures and their relationship to hand hygiene procedures: a clinical audit. Br J Anaesth 87: 291-294 [Abstract] [Full text]  
• Stone, S P (2001). Hand hygiene--the case for evidence-based education. JRSM 94: 278-281 [Full text]  
• Saloojee, H, Steenhoff, A (2001). The health professional's role in preventing nosocomial infections. Postgrad. Med. J. 77: 16-19 [Abstract] [Full text]  
• Farrar, J J, Yen, L M, Cook, T, Fairweather, N, Binh, N, Parry, J, Parry, C M (2000). NEUROLOGICAL ASPECTS OF TROPICAL DISEASE: Tetanus. J. Neurol. Neurosurg. Psychiatry 69: 292-301 [Full text]  
• May, J., Chan, C. H., King, A., Williams, L., French, G. L. (2000). Time-kill studies of tea tree oils on clinical isolates. J Antimicrob Chemother 45: 639-643 [Abstract] [Full text]  
• Michiels, B., Avonts, D., van Royen, P., Denekens, J. (2000). GPs can improve their hand washing habits. BMJ 320: 869-869 [Full text]  
• Cookson, B. (2000). Infection and antimicrobial prescribing control in the new millennium: nightmare or nirvana?. J. Clin. Pathol. 53: 66-70 [Full text]  
• Weeks, A., Sen, R., Keaney, M., Trail, A., Howard, C., Chadwick, P., Kesavan, S, Welbourn, C R. B, Jones, S. M, Hateley, P. M, Jurnaa, P A, MacDermott, R., Varghese, D, Patel, H, Katme, A M. (1999). Hand washing. BMJ 319: 518-518 [Full text]  

Rapid Responses:

Read all Rapid Responses

Handwashing study in a teaching hospital

P Badrinath
bmj.com, 13 Mar 1999 [Full text]

Hand Wash- When is it necessary

Rajesh Mistry
bmj.com, 15 Mar 1999 [Full text]

Nursing Homes

Johan Bots
bmj.com, 14 Mar 1999 [Full text]

Participatory tools for assessing hygiene practices

Astier M Almedom
bmj.com, 15 Mar 1999 [Full text]

Is alcoholic hand rub the solution?

M R Budhoo
bmj.com, 19 Mar 1999 [Full text]

Small wonder that few wash their hands

Nicholas Mayne
bmj.com, 19 Mar 1999 [Full text]

Methods to motivate handwashing in the NICU

Edwin Dias
bmj.com, 20 Mar 1999 [Full text]

Why I don't handwash between each patient contact.

Andrew Weeks
bmj.com, 21 Mar 1999 [Full text]

Handwashing

Rachel Sen
bmj.com, 23 Mar 1999 [Full text]

Handwashing in postgraduate medical examinations

Richard P Hobson
bmj.com, 23 Mar 1999 [Full text]

Now wash your hands....

Norman Macdonald
bmj.com, 23 Mar 1999 [Full text]

Environmental contamination of school washrooms in the United Kingdom.

Ronald A Dixon
bmj.com, 23 Mar 1999 [Full text]

Hand washing

Paul Bradley
bmj.com, 24 Mar 1999 [Full text]

Alcohol hand rubs are better than soap and water

C Richard, et al.
bmj.com, 6 Apr 1999 [Full text]

Can doctors fomites transmit infection too?

Allistair Stark
bmj.com, 22 Apr 1999 [Full text]

In many hospitals' toilets soap and paper towels are not provided

A Agrawal
bmj.com, 22 Apr 1999 [Full text]

We should all wash our hands

C Ang, et al.
bmj.com, 19 May 1999 [Full text]

S-CleanWipe

Eugene Sherry
bmj.com, 18 Jun 1999 [Full text]

Improving handwashing facilities can contribute towards good hand hygiene

Y Drabu, et al.
bmj.com, 18 Jun 1999 [Full text]

Exams should require hand washing

Elizabeth S R Darley
bmj.com, 17 Jul 1999 [Full text]

Also general practitioners can improve their hand washing habits.

Michiels Barbara
bmj.com, 25 Oct 1999 [Full text]

Response

Kenneth Seaton
bmj.com, 2 Nov 1999 [Full text]

Can British medical students pass their final examinations without washing their hands?

M Thorpe, et al.
bmj.com, 23 Dec 1999 [Full text]

Danger of alcohol gel in the eyes

Paul Miller
bmj.com, 22 Mar 2007 [Full text]

Re: Danger of alcohol gel in the eyes

Phillip J. Colquitt
bmj.com, 23 Mar 2007 [Full text]

Danger of alcohol gel in the stomach

Emma Stapleton
bmj.com, 23 Mar 2007 [Full text]