Hygiene

Hygiene refers to the practices, systems, and behaviours used to maintain health and reduce the spread of harmful microorganisms. Rather than focusing solely on cleanliness, hygiene aims to interrupt the pathways through which bacteria, viruses, fungi, and other pathogens spread between people, surfaces, equipment, food, animals, and the environment.

Effective hygiene is one of the simplest and most cost-effective ways to protect public health, reduce disease transmission, and safeguard vulnerable people across healthcare, food, and community settings.

Applied across hand hygiene programmes, environmental cleaning and disinfection routines, food handling controls, waste management, and infection prevention procedures.