Fighting antibiotic resistance: It’s in your hands!

Posted on 05.05.2017

5 May marks World Hand Hygiene Day, a day dedicated to promoting the need for proper handwashing to health workers around the world. WHO’s global annual campaign on this day “Save Lives: Clean your Hands” aims to draw attention to the importance of hand hygiene in preventing infections. This year, there is a particular focus in the campaign on antibiotic resistance, a global public health concern taking 25000 lives across the EU each year. The clear link between Healthcare Acquired Infections (HAIs) and Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) has been recognized by several actors, including Vytenis Andriukaitis, Commissioner for Health and Food Safety:

“The excessive and inappropriate use of antibiotics together with poor infection control practices, have progressively turned antimicrobial resistance into a massive threat for humankind”

(Speech of Vytenis Andriukaitis, Commissioner for Health and Safety at the at the Lithuanian Conference on Challenges in Addressing the Issue of Antimicrobial Resistance, 2016)

MedTech Europe welcomes this initiative and supports fully the thinking that in order to fight AMR, we first need to start by focusing on infection prevention. Medical technologies provide various opportunities throughout the patient pathway in order to prevent and control infections.

Explore our newly launched HAI brochure on the occasion of World Hand Hygiene Day to learn more about the value of medical technologies in the fight against HAIs.