CDC Foundation and GOJO to Enhance Hand Hygiene Educational Outreach in U.S. Healthcare Settings

The CDC Foundation is partnering with GOJO to provide unbranded hand hygiene educational materials and tools for patients, healthcare providers and caregivers in U.S. healthcare facilities such as hospitals, nursing homes and other ambulatory care locations. The goal of this initiative is to improve hand hygiene practices in these settings to help reduce the number of healthcare-associated infections (HAIs).

The CDC recommends that healthcare providers practice hand hygiene at key points in time to disrupt the transmission of microorganisms to patients, visitors and healthcare workers. Patients and their loved ones can play a role in helping to prevent infections by practicing good hand hygiene themselves as well as asking or reminding their healthcare providers to perform hand hygiene.

Additionally, many people die from other conditions complicated by an antibiotic-resistant infection. Each year in the United States, an estimated 2 million people become infected with bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics and at least 23,000 people die as a direct result of these infections. Antibiotic-resistant infections and Clostridium difficile also threaten patients in U.S. healthcare facilities. Preventing infections through strong infection control, including handwashing with soap and water and using alcohol-based hand sanitizers, can prevent patients from getting infections that require antibiotics.

"This partnership expands patients' and healthcare providers' knowledge of hand hygiene practices," says Charles Stokes, president and CEO of the CDC Foundation. "We are grateful to GOJO for their support to help protect patients from healthcare-associated infections."

"We know the single most important measure to reduce healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) is effective hand hygiene," says Joe Kanfer, chairman and chief executive officer of GOJO. "Handwashing and hand sanitizing are primary infection prevention actions that healthcare workers take to overcome the challenge of HAIs, reduce the need for antibiotics and combat antibiotic resistance. We look forward to working with the CDC so that, together, we can improve awareness of -- and advance the science of -- hand hygiene and its importance in improving public health."

This project is part of the Safe Healthcare Initiative, a partnership program coordinated by CDC's Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion and the CDC Foundation to eliminate healthcare-associated infections. Other efforts include the Preventing Infections in Cancer Patients program, the Safe Injection Practices Coalition, patient tools for antibiotic stewardship programs and analyzing antibiotic use in U.S. healthcare settings.

The CDC Foundation advances the mission of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention through philanthropy and public-private partnerships that protect the health, safety and security of America and the world. Established by Congress more than two decades ago, the CDC Foundation is an independent, nonprofit organization that has launched 800 programs and raised more than $620 million through partnerships with philanthropies, corporations, organizations and individuals. The CDC Foundation currently manages nearly 300 CDC-led programs in the United States and in 75 countries.

GOJO Industries, inventors of PURELL® Instant Hand Sanitizer, distributes PURELL Hand Sanitizer in away-from-home markets throughout the world. In addition, GOJO manufactures and distributes a full line of products under GOJO® and PROVON® brand names. Since 1946, GOJO has been the leader in improving well-being through hand hygiene and healthy skin. GOJO has products and programs to kill germs on hands and solve skin care-related problems in a variety of markets, including healthcare, foodservice, food processing, manufacturing, automotive, education, government and military. GOJO is a privately held corporation headquartered in Akron, Ohio, with operations in the United Kingdom, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, Japan and France.

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