The effectiveness of hand hygiene procedures in reducing the risks of infections in home and community settings including handwashing and alcohol-based hand sanitizers

 This document has been developed as a special project by the International Scientific Forum on Home Hygiene (IFH; www.ifh-homehygiene.org). IFH is a nongovernmental, not for profit organization that is working to raise awareness of the importance of hygiene in the home and to develop and promote a strategy for home hygiene based on sound scientific principles. The first draft of this document was prepared by Professor Sally Bloomfield and Dr. Allison Aiello. An expert group convened by IFH, comprising Professor Bloomfield, Dr. Aiello, Professor Elaine Larson, Professor Barry Cookson, Dr. Michele Pearson, and Dr. Carol O'Boyle met at Columbia University, New York, on March 22, 2007, to review, discuss, and develop the review and agree on final content. The information contained in this document is based on the database of scientific literature on home hygiene that has been accumulated by the IFH over the past 10 years, together with contributions from the knowledge base of all the authors. A PubMed search covering 2002 to 2007 was carried out using the terms “hygiene,” “home,” “handwashing,” and “alcohol” to ensure that recent literature was not overlooked. The section on intervention studies was based on a systematic review of the relevant literature.

 Supported by McNEIL-PPC, Inc., through an unrestricted educational grant.

 Disclaimer: The views expressed in this report are the views of the experts and are endorsed by the IFH. The views should not be considered representative of the parent institutions of the expert authors.

PII: S0196-6553(07)00595-0

doi: 10.1016/j.ajic.2007.07.001

© 2007 Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc All rights reserved.