The World Health Organization (WHO) launched a challenge to gather the largest number of health professionals in one place to wash their hands for World Hand Hygiene Day on Tuesday, 5 May. Hospital Beatriz Ângelo succeeded. At 1.30pm, 319 doctors, nurses, pharmacists, health technicians, assistants, administrative staff and managers assembled... and simultaneously performed the six steps that should be taken to wash their hands correctly. Beforehand, all participants were given a single dose of the disinfectant used by the health service, so that the record could be broken according to the rules. Everyone without exception came out of it with their hands properly clean. This was the only initiative of its kind held in Portugal. This is the first time, according to the information gathered so far, that a Portuguese hospital, the HBA, has fulfilled a WHO challenge - as other hospitals all over the world have in the past. The HBA has thereby created a Portuguese national record, with 319 of its professionals washing their hands at the same time. World Hand Hygiene Day was created by the WHO as part of its global campaigns to combat hospital infections - a scourge that affects more and more health facilities, staff and patients. In 2013, one in ten people admitted to a Portugal hospital subsequently contracted an infection.
