Hands clean: Hospital Authority Chief Executive Anthony Wu, Secretary for Food & Health Dr York Chow and Director of Health Dr PY Lam promote hand hygiene.

Secretary for Food & Health Dr York Chow today highlighted the importance of clean hands for the prevention and control of infectious disease at a ceremony organised in support of the World Health Organisation's hand-hygiene initiative.

Speaking at the Hand Hygiene Awareness Day ceremony, Dr Chow said: "The practice of hand hygiene is crucial to the prevention and control of healthcare-associated infection and prevention of transmission of drug-resistant bacteria. The benefit of hand hygiene was especially evident during the influenza pandemic."

Public hospitals, government clinics, health centres and many private hospitals in Hong Kong are promoting hand hygiene using WHO guidelines on healthcare.

Eight nursing homes have pioneered the adoption and adaptation of the WHO strategies to promote hand-hygiene compliance, with an encouraging compliance rate of 80% measured four months after intervention.

Also attending the ceremony was the WHO Director-General Dr Margaret Chan who thanked Hong Kong for its contribution to the WHO initiative.

"By rigorously testing the WHO hand-hygiene improvement strategy in hospitals, Hong Kong has generated significant information on the feasibility, validity, and reliability of the interventions," she said.