World Hand Hygiene Day, marked globally on 5 May, highlights the importance of hand hygiene in health care. The slogan of this year’s campaign is “It’s in your hands – prevent sepsis in health care”, illustrating the important relationship between good infection prevention and control practices, such as washing your hands and preventing sepsis. The World Health Organization (WHO) calls on health facilities to prevent healthcare-associated sepsis through hand hygiene and action on infection prevention and control.