The Vice President for Education and Student Affairs inaugurates the International Hand Hygiene Day celebration at Ain Shams University

Prof. Abdel Fattah Saoud Vice President for Education and Student Affairs, inaugurated the first celebration of the International Hand Hygiene Day under the slogan “Lead the way for clean hands” under the auspices of Prof. Mahmoud Eel-Meteini, President of the University and Prof. Ali Al-Anwar, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, Prof. Hala Sweid, Vice Dean for Community Service and Environmental Development, headed by Prof. Maha Hamdy, Head of the Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, with the participation of a group of professors from the Microbiology Department and an external presence from The Ministry of Health and the Secretariat of Specialized Medical Centers.

At the beginning of the conversation, there was awareness in Arabic for non-specialists in providing medical services about the importance of hand hygiene and their role in society to maintain their safety and link it to adherence to hand hygiene.

In his speech, Prof. Abdel-Fattah Saoud emphasized the important and effective role of student participation in educational, therapeutic, and awareness-raising activities that improve their behavior. Using students and encouraging them to take responsibility makes them feel their importance and status, which brings remarkable and successful results that develop their ability to reform and participate from a young age. He praised the responsibility entrusted to the Faculty of Medicine in terms of treatment and education, in addition to providing these services on a large scale.

He also reviewed the university's leading role in medical convoys and eradicating illiteracy, which distinguishes it from others through its participation in many social activities. And, he said that "We have the largest community assistance network at the level of Egyptian universities," .

He drew attention to the need for correct awareness, which helps to avoid wrong behaviors and practices that may cause an increase in problems and infection with many diseases, and the need for openness to knowledge to improve wrong practices and exchange experiences in order to help control any pandemic that may occur.

The activities of the celebration included educating the external community, where a number of schools were visited, awareness leaflets were distributed to citizens on the street, and a visit to the Heliopolis Club, with the participation of faculty staff, supportive families and students, and some illustrations of the important steps to clean hands were presented.

On the sidelines of the celebration, a workshop was organized within the Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, led by Prof. Maha Hamdy, with the participation of elite from the Department of Microbiology and professors of the Faculty of Medicine, as a project to improve adherence to hand hygiene, monitoring people's behavior, and how to choose types of hand hygiene.

In addition to organizing a competition between two groups of students to present the results of the practical study that was conducted within the laboratories of the Department of Microbiology in the faculty to separate the coexisting microbes on their hands, perform hand hygiene according to standard practices, re-do swabs from the hands, determine the type of microbes present before and after cleaning, and the extent of the effect of hand hygiene on their type and number. The results were presented to the attendees through a presentation, and the first winning group and the second winning group were selected and awarded certificates of appreciation.

And in the presence of various sectors as a community participation of doctors, nurses, pharmacists and representatives in the medical services sector in the Ministry of the Interior and hospitals of the Ministry of Health and private hospitals and health directorates in Cairo and the governorates and private universities and health insurance with a total number of 145 from outside the faculty in addition to the internal attendance.