The Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) is launching an expanded hand hygiene campaign, aiming to raise awareness on the importance of handwashing as a key factor in the prevention of diseases and an indicator of the quality of healthcare.
The campaign, being launched on Saturday, is part of the ministry's participation in the celebration of the World Handwashing Day, which falls on May 5 each year. This year's slogan is "It is up to you to prevent sepsis in healthcare facilities."
During the campaign, awareness-raising activities take place in a number of hospitals and health facilities in both public and private sectors.
The World Handwashing Day is a valuable initiative and an important opportunity to strengthen partnerships and synergies in health institutions in the public and private sectors, educational institutions and all relevant sectors in Qatar, as well as cooperation with organisations," especially the World Health Organisation (WHO), said Huda al-Katheeri, director of healthcare and patient safety at the MoPH.
She noted the need to enhance the collective awareness of the importance of hand hygiene in all places where healthcare is provided and to seek the implementation of the World Health Assembly resolution 2017 on sepsis, while ensuring that hand hygiene is a national indicator of the quality of healthcare.
Sepsis is a condition that represents one of the complications of the infection and threatens the life of the injured, and occurs when the immune system in the body reacts sharply with the infection. Hand cleaning plays a key role in prevention of the infection.
The awareness campaign calls on health workers to adhere to the five-hour handwashing to prevent sepsis in healthcare facilities and to leaders in the field of infection prevention and control to be a role model in promoting hand hygiene to prevent sepsis in healthcare facilities.
WHO estimates that hundreds of millions of patients worldwide suffer from infections associated with healthcare every year. WHO notes that most health-related infections can be avoided by keeping hands clean at the right time and in the right way. 
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