Background:

hand hygiene is the most important factor for self-care, it is one of the most economical and effective ways to prevent diseases such as cholera, typhoid fever, acute respiratory diseases and other gastrointestinal tract infections.

Objective:

to perform a journey through the history of handwashing.

Methods:

a bibliographic review was carried out, a search without language restrictions from 2008 to 2019, and following a chronological order in the analysis. The search terms hand hygiene, communicable diseases, and health care, were used in the SciELO, Ebsco, LILAC, and MEDLINE databases. 94 published documents were identified, of which 35 were selected according to the objective. Results: we refer to the biographical background of Ignaz Philipp Semmelweis, and to the history of hand washing in Cuba and the need to comply with hand washing in hospitals. We provide information on the promotion of proper hand hygiene to reduce the risk of contracting communicable diseases.

Conclusions:

the promotion of adequate hand hygiene reduces the risk of contracting communicable diseases. By providing care with safe hands a quality service is offered that preserves patient safety in all areas.

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