A Simple Action, a Major Impact: Hand Hygiene Against Maternal and Neonatal Sepsis

Every day, in all health care facilities, health care–associated infections (HAIs) continue to pose a significant threat. These infections contribute to the burden of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), cause suffering to patients, their families, and health care workers, and can lead to premature death and disability. In addition, they increase health care costs and hinder efforts to ensure safe, high quality care for all people.

A considerable proportion of preventable infections acquired during the provision of health care could be avoided through the timely implementation of hand hygiene and other infection prevention and control (IPC) measures.

Every pregnancy, every delivery and/ or every newborn is at risk of infections that could trigger sepsis. In Latin America and the Caribbean, two women die every day from obstetric sepsis, and one in ten neonatal deaths is due to sepsis. In this webinar, we will address hand hygiene as a simple and cost effective action to prevent maternal and neonatal sepsis

• Encourage healthcare teams to practice hand hygiene during their workday in accordance with the Five Moments for Hand Hygiene established by the WHO.

• To contribute reduce preventable maternal deaths by promoting hand hygiene as a tool available to all healthcare workers.