Chapter 4: Infection prevention and control
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Hand hygiene
Definition
Hand hygiene, or hand decontamination as it is also called, is the process used to render the hands physically clean with a reduced microbial load. Hand hygiene may involve the use of soap and water to wash the hands, principally to remove organic soiling, and/or the use of an alcohol‐based hand sanitizer, which if applied correctly will remove most micro‐organisms (Boyce et al. [9], Gold and Avva [48], NHS England and NHSI [82], Pittet et al. [101]).
