Why is WHO placing great emphasis on alcohol-based handrubs, at the point of care, and promoting them as the international standard for hand hygiene?
The availability of a product which renders the hands safe in terms of transmission of pathogens, and which can be used at the very place where pathogens are transmitted, has revolutionized hand hygiene improvement strategies in the modern age. For this reason, alcohol-based handrubs are considered to fulfil the highest standards of safety in relation to the prevention of cross-infection. At the present time, the most efficacious, well-tolerated and well-researched product which can be placed ergonomically and safely at the point of care is an alcohol-based handrub. This system change facilitates the right action to occur at the right time and in the right way. It is unlikely, although not impossible, that running water, soap and towels will be installed right next to each patient’s bed, or be available at the point of care in an affordable and practical way. Soap and water handwashing is however less efficacious, more time-consuming, and less well tolerated by skin than alcohol-based
