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How clean hands can save lives...

ABU DHABI — Reinforcing the importance of one of the simplest methods of preventing infection — washing hands — Mafraq Hospital launched ‘Clean Hands Save Lives’, its hand hygiene awareness campaign on Tuesday. The year-long drive targets Mafraq Hospital staff, patients and the Abu Dhabi community, especially children.

The hospital has created a hand hygiene mascot, ‘Habib the Hand’ designed to attract and engage children while communicating the benefits of hand hygiene. The new mascot will educate and play with young patients and their families in the children’s ward of the hospital.

“The Clean Hands Save Lives campaign is a crucial part of patient safety at Mafraq Hospital,” said John Nickens, CEO. “To really drive the message home, we have focused on creating a programme that is cheerful, lighthearted, colourful and also educational to raise overall awareness of the benefits of hand washing. We are starting at the base, right here in the hospital, but also branching out into the wider community. The aim is to transform hand washing with soap from an abstract ‘good idea’ into an automatic behaviour performed in homes, schools and across communities in the UAE,” he added.

By October, a number of interactive community activities primarily targetting families will take place across Abu Dhabi. Educational material including banners in public bathrooms and ‘hands on sticks’ will be distributed as a constant yet fun reminder of the benefits of hand washing.

Hand washing with soap is among the most effective and inexpensive way to prevent diarrheal diseases (shigellosis, typhoid and cholera); acute respiratory infections (SARS and bird flu); and pneumonia, which, when combined, are responsible for majority of child deaths.

“Hand hygiene remains the simplest and single most important measure to break the chain of infection and prevent illness,” said Gail Smith, chief nurse at the Mafraq Hospital.

olivia@khaleejtimes.com