On World Hand Hygiene Day, the World Health Organisation urged global health systems to prioritise appropriate hand hygiene over the use of gloves, a practice increasingly connected to increased healthcare waste and environmental pressure. 

Dr Bruce Aylward, a senior WHO official, cautioned that "medical gloves can reduce the risk of infection, but they are never a replacement for hand hygiene." This warning comes at a time when over 40% of healthcare institutions worldwide lack even basic hand hygiene arrangements for care delivery, putting 3.4 billion people at risk. 

Hand hygiene—simple procedures such as washing hands with soap or using alcohol-based hand rubs—is one of the most effective and inexpensive ways to avoid infections in clinical settings. According to WHO estimates, every $1 invested in improving hand cleanliness can result in more than $24 in economic gains from reduced disease, hospital stays, and costly sequelae. 

Despite this, glove overuse continues to be prevalent in hospital routines. While gloves are necessary in high-risk scenarios, such as when handling blood or other bodily fluids, their habitual overuse presents significant issues. "Gloves can become contaminated, just like hands," the WHO warns, emphasising how health personnel frequently use the same pair for many procedures or patients. This raises the risk of infection and creates a false sense of security. 

Equally concerning is the environmental footprint. Once worn, gloves are normally considered hazardous trash that must be incinerated at high temperatures or disposed of in a specialised manner. Every year, thousands of tonnes of medical waste are generated in high-income hospitals—waste that might be significantly reduced with better glove use and continuous hand cleanliness. To put it in perspective, the average university hospital in the Global North produces healthcare waste equivalent to the weight of more than 360 adult African elephants each year. 

In response, WHO has laid out a number of steps: Governments should make hand hygiene a formal health performance measure by 2026, in accordance with new global infection prevention targets. Training health professionals in WHO's "5 Moments for Hand Hygiene" framework is critical, as is reducing needless glove use and making hand hygiene products available at all points of care. 

This year's message is plain and urgent: while gloves are useful, clean hands are the first line of defence against illnesses. As WHO puts it, "It may be gloves. It's always about hand hygiene."