The World Hand Hygiene Day is being observed today. The day aims to create awareness among the general public about the importance of hand hygiene. This year`s theme of the day is, Save lives – clean your hands.

It also focuses to improve hand hygiene in the health care sector, where the cleanliness of hands is often credited with saving more lives than most medical breakthroughs.

The day galvanise care providers worldwide and to acknowledge hand hygiene and other relevant infection control techniques as essential for patient safety.

The World Health Organisation had launched this campaign in the year 2009 to create awareness about the benefits of an improved hand hygiene.