The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has called for more effort in maintaining hand hygiene.
Dr Abiodun Egwuenu, the Programme Manager, Antimicrobial Resistance Programme at the centre, said this on Thursday in Abuja at the commemoration of the 2022 World Hand Hygiene Day (WHHD) by Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Jabi in Abuja.
This year’s celebration had as it’s theme, “Health Care Quality and Safety Climate or Culture that Values Hygiene and Infection Prevention and Control (IPC)” and “Unite for Safety: Clean Your Hands” as slogan.
Speaking, Dr Egwuenu said hand washing was 16 times cheaper than the cost of treating an infectious disease.
He empasised that hand hygiene was very important because 50 per cent of infections, especially at the hospitals, often referred to as hospital or healthcare acquired infections, were avoidable.
In his remarks, the Medical Director, FMC Jabi, Prof. Saad Ahmed, said there was need to continually emphasise the importance of hand hygiene.
Ahmed, who was represented by Dr Joseph Eziechila, the Head, Clinical Services at the hospital, in an analogy using Viral Conjunctivitis, popularly referred to as “Apollo”, said that it could be prevented by the washing of hands.
