Taiwan Department of Health announced the promotion of the World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines on 5 moments for hand hygiene . On may 5, the Minister of Health, Yeh Ching-Chuan, the Director of the Taiwan Centers for Disease Control (Taiwan CDC), the Director of the Bureau of Medical Affairs, the Director of the Taiwan Joint Commission on Hospital Accreditation (TJCHA), the Director of the Hospital Administration Commission and the representative of the Infectious Disease Advisory Committee as well as the superintendents of Taipei Veterans General Hospital and National Taiwan University Hospital gathered together to call all the healthcare workers’ attention on hand hygiene, which is not only the responsibility of health-care workers, but also the defensive line to protect them from pathogens.

According to a WHO survey, the average rate of health-care associated infection among inpatients in developed countries is 5 to 10 percent. At this rate, the annual number of patients who acquire healthcare-associated infection in Taiwan would be over 85,000.As a result, the number of days of hospital stay is almost 20 days longer, wasting more than NT $20 billion of medical resources. Besides the financial loss, healthcare works are especially vulnerable to such infections. During the SARS period in 2003, about 20 to 60 percent of the infections are healthcare workers, showing that healthcare workers are at risk for infection in their workplace. To protect healthcare works themselves and patients from healthcare-associated infections, hand hygiene is the best solution.

Taiwan Centers for Diseases Control (CDC) director Kou Hsu-sung regards hand hygiene as the most important part of disease prevention. The risk of healthcare-associated infection would be lower, as long as all employees in the hospital clean their hands, following WHO 5 moments for hand hygiene: before touching a patient, before clean/aseptic procedures, after body fluid exposure risk, after touching a patient, and after touching patient surroundings.

According to the WHO guidelines on hand hygiene, when there is no obvious contamination on hands, using alcohol-based hand antiseptics will be more convenient for healthcare workers.In addition, using alcohol-based antiseptics is more efficient than standard handwashing and less harmful to skin. Hospitals have been asked to install alcohol-based handrub dispensers around the healthcare area and provide workers portable hand sanitizer to ensure healthcare workers can maintain hand hygiene without leaving the healthcare area.

To reduce healthcare-associated infection, Taiwan CDC promotes hand hygiene using the WHO「Safe Life: Clean Your Hands」 program . Taiwan CDC plans to establish a center for hand hygiene to promote hand hygiene in Taiwan. To further improve patients’ safety in Taiwan, Taiwan CDC also encourages objective NGOs to supervise hospitals. In the long run, Taiwan CDC makes efforts on calling upon all citizens to practice hand hygiene in order to effectively control the spread of communicate diseases.