Overview
On Global Handwashing Day, WHO and UNICEF have released the first-ever global Guidelines on Hand Hygiene in Community Settings to support governments and practitioners in promoting effective hand hygiene outside health care – across households, public spaces and institutions.These Guidelines are concerned with the practice of hand hygiene to protect community health outcomes, in particular, the reduction of diarrhoeal diseases and acute respiratory infections. The focus is on hand hygiene in non-health care settings, collectively referred to as community settings. Community settings are defined as those where health care is not routinely delivered. They include three broad domains: domestic (households), public and institutional settings (WHO).
Facts
- Hand hygiene is one of the simplest yet most powerful tools in our public health arsenal.
- Hand hygiene remains one of the most cost-effective health investments, reducing diarrhoea by 30% and acute respiratory infections by 17%, with large, measurable gains for population health.
- Around 1.7 billion people still lack basic hygiene services. Of these, 611 million people have no handwashing facilities at all–neither soap nor water are available at home.
Guideline recommendations
- Hand hygiene in community settings is an important public health measure; governments should promote it by removing barriers and enabling sustained behaviour change. This includes clear roles, financing and monitoring at national and local levels, consistent with international health obligations.
- Hand hygiene should be practiced using plain soap and water long enough to fully cover and rub both hands; when hands are not visibly dirty, alcohol-based hand rub (≥60% alcohol) is an effective alternative.
Five key times are emphasized
- Before preparing food
- Before eating or feeding/breastfeeding others;
- After using the toilet or handling faeces;
- After coughing/sneezing/nose-blowing; and
- When hands are visibly dirty.
Core requirements include:
- Minimum materials on premises – reliable water plus soap or alcohol-based hand rub (ABHR) – with safe grey water disposal;
- Clear information on why, when, how and where to clean hands; and
- A conducive physical and social environment so facilities are convenient, accessible and easy to use, and norms support regular practice.
Seven cross-cutting principles for implementation
The Guidelines also set out seven cross-cutting principles for implementation:
- Prioritize meeting minimum material needs
- Understand drivers/barriers to behaviour
- Engage communities
- Ensure gender responsiveness
- Commit to progressive improvement
- Strengthen systems; and
- Monitor, evaluate and improve.
who
- Resolutions and Decisions of the WHO South-East Asia Regional Committee
- Guidelines on Hand Hygiene in Community Settings
- Global Antibiotic Resistance Surveillance Report 2025
- Maldives becomes the first country to achieve ‘triple elimination’ of mother-to-child transmission of HIV, Syphilis and Hepatitis B
- Global Burden of Disease (GBD) 2023 Country Profile: Nepal
