RESUMEN
Background: Infection control is ac knowledge universally as a solid and essential basis towards patients‟ safety and support the reduction of health care association infection and their consequences. Simple hand hygiene is cost effective method in preventing cross transmission of microorganism. The compliance of health providers with hand washing guidelines seems to be vital in preventing the disease transmission among patients but unfortunately hand hygiene practices have been found to be faulty in most of the health care facilities including tertiary care hospitals. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted to evaluate the awareness and compliance of hand hygiene among different health care providers, that includes 100 doctors, 100 nurses, 100 medical students, 50 ward boys working in different tertiary care Hospitals attached to medical colleges, in and around Hyderabad, in Telangana state (India) from April to July - 2014. Knowledge was assessed using WHO hand hygiene questionnaire. Attitude and practices was evaluated by using self-structure questionnaire. A value less than 0.05 was considered significant. Results: Only 16.5 % of participants had good knowledge regarding hand hygiene. Nurses‟ knowledge is better than doctors, Knowledge, attitude and practices of doctor and nurses were better than medical students and ward boys, trained staff have better knowledge on hand hygiene and effective infection control committees have some impact on hand hygiene practices Conclusion: Hand hygiene practices among health providers irrespective of public sector or private sector hospitals were found to be low. It was concluded that serious efforts are need to improve the hand hygiene practices among all health providers.