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. 2020 Jan-Dec:11:2150132720943331.
doi: 10.1177/2150132720943331.

Rigorous Hand Hygiene Practices Among Health Care Workers Reduce Hospital-Associated Infections During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Rozina Roshan  1 , Anam Shahil Feroz  2 , Zohra Rafique  1 , Nazleen Virani  1
Affiliations

Rigorous Hand Hygiene Practices Among Health Care Workers Reduce Hospital-Associated Infections During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Rozina Roshan et al. J Prim Care Community Health. 2020 Jan-Dec.

Abstract

The experiences of these recent months have left us with as many new questions as they have given us new solutions. The main question that infection prevention and control department is having these days is "Why have hospital-associated infections (HAIs) reduced during COVID-19 pandemic?" What is the one unique strategy that has brought decline in increasing HAIs? Would it be appropriate to say that rigorous hand hygiene practices among health care workers (HCWs) have reduced HAIs in a tertiary care hospital of Pakistan? This commentary is written to understand the effect of rigorous hand hygiene among HCWs on number of HAIs during COVID-19 pandemic. Given the seriousness of this outbreak, it was observed that the hand hygiene has occupied a new place of importance in the minds of HCWs. We observed 4 times increase in the consumption of hand sanitizers after COVID-19 outbreak. The increased consumption of hand sanitizers was reflected in improved hand hygiene practices. A reduction was observed in the number of HAIs after the COVID-19 outbreak, and we assume that the dip in HAIs is associated with the improvement in hand hygiene practices in the recent months. In the wake of COVID-19 pandemic, these trends reassure us that hand hygiene compliance by HCWs alone can be effective in reducing HAIs in a hospital setting.

Keywords: COVID-19; hand hygiene compliance; hospital-associated infections (HAIs).

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Conflicting Interests: The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Trends of hospital-associated infections and hand hygiene compliance before and after COVID-19 outbreak.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Sanitizer consumption bottles from October 2019 till April 2020.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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