The World Health Organization (WHO) has issued a reminder to healthcare staff that wearing gloves does not replace the need for good hand hygiene. Yesterday, (May 5) was World Hand Hygiene Day, and WHO used the occasion to stress that hand hygiene is one of the most effective, affordable and universal tools there is to prevent the transmission of infections and provide high-quality, clean and safe medical care.
While medical gloves serve a vital role in preventing transmission of infection, for example when there is risk of exposure to blood and body fluids, they are not a substitute for cleaning hands at the right time.
WHO is urging governments, healthcare facilities and frontline workers around the world to reinforce hand hygiene practices, which are a proven, cost-effective intervention to protect both patients and healthcare workers.
“Medical gloves can reduce the risk of infection, but they are never a replacement for hand hygiene,” says Dr Bruce Aylward, WHO Assistant Director-General, Universal Health Coverage, Life Course. “On this World Hand Hygiene Day, let us double down on our commitment and action to improve hand hygiene in healthcare settings to ensure the safety of patients and healthcare workers.”
Save lives, save money and reduce waste
Globally, WHO reports that two in five healthcare facilities still lack basic hand hygiene services where care is provided, putting 3.4 billion people at risk. Furthermore, improper glove use not only undermines infection prevention and control practices but also adds significantly to healthcare waste. Much of this waste can be avoided by maintaining hand hygiene and using gloves only when necessary.
Gloves are protective but not foolproof or without problems. Just like hands, gloves can become contaminated, and are often misused, such as being worn indefinitely while health workers switch between patients, or when they are performing multiple procedures for the same patient. Additionally, overuse of gloves contributes to environmental degradation.
An average university hospital in a developed country generates 1,634 tons of healthcare waste each year, which is equivalent to over 360 African elephants. Much of the waste could have been avoided if gloves were used properly and good hand hygiene was practiced. Most used gloves are considered infectious and require high-temperature incineration or specialised treatment, adding strain to already burdened waste management systems.
Action needed now
WHO urges national policy makers and health communities to implement a range of actions to improve rational use of gloves and hand hygiene in healthcare settings:
• Establish hand hygiene compliance as a national health system performance indicator by 2026 in line with the Global action plan and monitoring framework on infection prevention and control (IPC), 2024-2030
• Align national efforts on hand hygiene with the WHO guidelines on hand hygiene in healthcare
• Train health workers on appropriate use of gloves and the WHO guidance, ‘Five moments for hand hygiene’
• Focus on reducing unnecessary glove use to minimise healthcare waste; provide the necessary resources to enable hand hygiene to be practiced at the point of care
• Prevent glove misuse by keeping enough good-quality gloves accessible.
