Washing hands defence against bird flu

LONDON - A global campaign today will launch a secret weapon against the spread of avian flu - a small plastic bottle of alcohol rub and a warning to wash your hands.

Health officials will warn that clean hands are the best defence against the threatened flu pandemic and that regular use of alcohol rub could save millions of lives from other hospital infections.

The bid to improve hand hygiene is being launched simultaneously in 12 countries. Doctors fear that when a flu pandemic strikes, hospitals will be overwhelmed and could become breeding grounds for the disease as it is transmitted between patients and medical staff.

Fears about avian flu were raised last week by Dr David Nabarro, newly appointed as United Nations co-ordinator for avian and human influenza, who said that the next pandemic could claim from 5 million up to 150 million lives.

Britain's chief medical officer, Sir Liam Donaldson, who chairs the World Alliance for Patient Safety, said the flu virus was transmitted in droplets in the air when infected people coughed or sneezed, like the common cold and other respiratory viruses.

But a key route of transmission was from the hands of someone infected, who touched their nose or mouth and then opened a door or pressed a lift button later touched by someone else. "We want to try and reduce the risk of cross-infection in people admitted to hospital when a pandemic strikes," Sir Liam said.

At any one time more than 1.4 million people worldwide become seriously ill from an infection they picked up while in hospital, including up to one in 10 hospital patients in developed countries.

The commonest infections are Staphylococcus Aureus, of which the antibiotic-resistant form MRSA is the most lethal, and E Coli. Together they cause hundreds of millions of patients to fall ill in hospital every year.

The campaign for clean hands, the first Global Patient Safety Challenge launched by the WHO, aims to provide bottles of alcohol rub on every ward in every hospital and health clinic. Muslim scholars have approved the use of the alcohol-based product by Muslims and more than 200 hospitals in Saudi Arabia have installed alcohol rub this year.

Professor Didier Pittet, director of the Global Patient Safety Challenge, said the risk of transmission of avian flu was greatest in the first two days after infection before symptoms emerged.

"Once you are sick no one will come near you. But before you are sick, hand hygiene is the primary way to prevent spread of the infection. It is our first line of defence against a pandemic."

Pittet said health workers were more likely to wash their hands after touching a patient than before - to protect themselves.

Studies showed only 30 to 40 per cent of health workers regularly cleaned their hands and levels were much lower among the public.

- INDEPENDENT