STOP! Clean Your Hands Day Emphasizes the Importance of Good Hand Hygiene

Today is STOP! Clean Your Hands Day, which is an important day to create awareness of the critical role good hand hygiene plays in preventing and reducing the spread of bacteria, infections and communicable diseases.

“The importance of good hand hygiene cannot be overstated,” said the Honourable Susan Sullivan, Minister of Health and Community Services. “Hand hygiene has been advocated as the single most important way to prevent the exchange of infection. It is particularly important to educate children at an early age to ensure they continue to practice good hand washing throughout their lives as an easy and effective way to help keep them healthy.”

The Provincial Government has developed several hand hygiene promotional materials to encourage and inform families, children and health care professionals about proper hand washing techniques and communicable disease prevention. These materials, including the Clean, Cover and Contain and Scrub Up! Germs Hide posters are available online at www.gov.nl.ca/health. 

“On STOP! Clean Your Hands Day and every day, remember to practice the three C’s—Clean, Cover and Contain,” said Minister Sullivan. “Clean your hands regularly with soap and water or an alcohol-based hand sanitizer, use a tissue or your arm to cover coughs and sneezes, and contain your illness by staying home and resting.”

STOP! Clean Your Hands Day is an initiative of the Canadian Patient Safety Institute, Accreditation Canada and Hospital Infection Control Canada. This national event, which is in its fourth year, coincides with a global initiative of the World Health Organization, Save Lives: Clean Your Hands.

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Media contact:
Scott Barfoot
Director of Communications
Department of Health and Community Services
709-729-1377, 690-6290
scottbarfoot@gov.nl.ca    

2013 05 06             12:25 p.m.