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Antonie van Leeuwenhoek was first credited with the discovery of bacteria (Porter, 1976).

Image: (Porter, 1976)

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Scottish physician, Dr. Alexander Gordon, published the Treatise on the Epidemic Puerperal Fever of Aberdeen, which highlighted his belief of healthcare workers as possible sources of contagion (Vermeil et al., 2018).

Image: (Gould, 2010)

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Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, an American physician, released Puerperal Fever, as a Private Pestilence, which discussed his belief that physicians were  spreading puerperal fever to patients by their hands (Lane, 2010).

Image: (Britannica, 2021b)

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Hungarian physician, Ignaz Semmelweis, introduced the idea of handwashing after recognizing a link between maternal mortality (due to puerperal fever) and "cadaverous particles" from health care workers (Lane, 2010).

Image: (Francisco, 2020)

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During the Crimean War, a nurse named Florence Nightingale introduced principles of infection control and sanitation to reduce infection rates of soldiers (Hillier, 2020).

Image: (Fee & Garofalo, 2010)

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Florence Nightingale published her Notes on Nursing, in which she outlined the need for nurses to wash their hands multiple times throughout the day (Hillier, 2020).

Image: (Presbyterian Historical Society, 2020)

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French chemist, Louis Pasteur, confirmed the modern Germ Theory in which he believed that microorganisms in the environment could cause disease (Tulchinsky & Varavikova, 2014).

Image: (Science History Institute, 2021)

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English Surgeon, Joseph Lister, published his method of antisepsis in surgery by utilizing a carbolic acid spray to prevent infection (Newsom, 2003).

Image: (Britannica, 2021a)

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Robert Koch, a German physician, expanded on Pasteur's Germ Theory and proved that specific organisms caused specific diseases (Tulchinsky & Varavikova, 2014).

Image: (Britannica, 2021c)

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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published the first national hand hygiene guidelines, in which hand washing with soap and water for 1-2 minutes was the preferred method in preventing healthcare-associated infections (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2002).

Image: (Sonnier, 2020)

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Purell, an example of an alcohol-based hand rub (ABHR), was created to help healthcare providers and employees in other industries reduce the spread of germs (GOJO, 2021b).

Image: (GOJO, 2021a)

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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Healthcare Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee (HICPAC) recommended that either antimicrobial soap or a waterless antiseptic agent (ex. AHBRs) be used for cleaning hands in patient care (CDC, 2002).

Image: (U.S. Food and Drug Administration, 2019)

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The World Health Organization (WHO) launched the first Global Patient Safety Challenge (Clean Care is Safer Care Program), which aimed to reduce healthcare-associated infections worldwide by improving hand hygiene practices and standards (World Health Organization [WHO], 2009).

Image: (Donaldson, 2007)

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Purell invented touch-free hand sanitizing dispensers that were placed in health care facilities to increase hand hygiene compliance (GOJO, 2021b).

Image: (GOJO, 2021a)

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The WHO released the final draft of the Hand Hygiene Guidelines in Healthcare which specifies that hands should be washed with soap and water for 40-60 seconds or 20-30 seconds when using ABHRs; the latter identified as the preferable option for health care workers (WHO, 2009).

Image: (WHO, 2009)

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The WHO launched the first annual Save Lives: Clean Your Hands campaign (as the next step to the Clean Care is Safer Care program) to motivate healthcare workers to view hand hygiene as a critical patient safety activity (WHO, 2021).

Image: (WHO, 2021)

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The CDC released a national campaign, Clean Hands Count, targeting health care workers to adhere to the CDC's hand hygiene guidelines (CDC, 2016).

Image: (CDC, 2016)

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The WHO created a global hand hygiene campaign, Seconds Save Lives: Clean Your Hands, in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic . The initiative's goal is to achieve appropriate levels of hand hygiene at the point of care (Allegranzi et al., 2021).

Image: (Allegranzi et al., 2021)