May is the month filled with health promotion activities. First, we have the World Hand Hygiene Day, marked globally on 5 May of each year since 2010. It highlights the importance of maintaining hand hygiene in order to prevent infections in both the hospital and the community settings. To echo with the World Health Organization’s (WHO) initiative of “SAVE LIVES: Clean Your Hands” and the call to strengthen infection prevention and control programmes, the Infection Control Branch of the Centre for Health Protection (CHP), Department of Health (DH) set the theme of this year as “Don’t Pass on the Bugs. Wash or Rub with 7 Steps for 20 seconds is a MUST”. It aims to remind members of the public to perform hand hygiene properly. To clean both hands effectively, we must wash or rub for at least 20 seconds and cover all areas of our hands.
