In November, 7th during the Opening Ceremony of the “XIV Brazilian Congress on Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology”, Porto Alegre, Brazil, was held the Award Ceremony of the “Latin America Hand Hygiene Excellence Award  2017-2018” for an audience of approximately 1500 participants.

At the Award Ceremony Prof. Didier Pittet, Director of the Infection Control Program and the WHO Collaborating Center on Patient Safety, University Hospitals in Geneva, Switzerland and the “Hand Hygiene Excellence Award” Director, presented a heartwarming story about "The adventure of Hand Hygiene”.

Each one of the Hospital winners presented their hand hygiene programme, how they implemented the WHO multimodal strategy on hand hygiene and what made them receive the award as all of them went beyond simply adopting a concept. 

The hospital winners were:

• Hospital Pequeno Príncipe, Curitiba, Brazil
• Hospital Cardio Pulmonar, Salvador, Brazil
• Hospital Universitario Departamental de Nariño, Pasto, Colombia.

During the Congress, the Hospitals winners had also the opportunity to share their experiences at B. Braun booth in order that other infection prevention and control specialists couls learn from them. 

Big congratulations to the hospitals winners and to the Congress organization, in particular Dr. Adão Machado, President of the “XIV Brazilian Congress on Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology”. 

Quote by Prof. Pittet: 

"The Hand Hygiene Excellence Award (HHEA) is conceived as a platform to identify, recognize, honour and celebrate those hospitals and health care work groups who have contributed to improving patient safety through their excellence, enthusiasm and innovatory methods. Let's mobilizes the world around the cause of saving lives!"