Ludhiana (Rajkumar Sathi). On the occasion of Global Hand washing Day, Dept of Microbiology conducted various activities for residents, students & the general public. The topic of this year is, “clean hands are within reach”. An awareness lecture on “Hand Hygiene- Why, When & How?” was delivered by Dr Veenu Gupta, Professor & Head, Dept of Microbiology and was attended by over a 100 nursing students. In this lecture, students were encouraged to follow six steps of hand washing while caring for patients. They were also made aware how missing one step in patient care can bring more infection to the patient whose immunity is already compromised. Sh Bipin Gupta, Secretary, DMC&H Managing Society lauded the efforts of the department and the infection control nurses for their work. A group activity was also organised for MBBS students by the residents of the department and infection control nurses in the patient care areas. In addition to this, public awareness sessions were also held in the OPD where patients & attendants were advised about the importance of proper hand washing before and after meals, after using washrooms, handling pets and caring for sick and elderly.