Kasturba Hospital enters Guinness Book of World Records for Hand Sanitization Relay

Manipal, 13 Jan 2017: Guinness World Records confirmed a place in the history for Kasturba Hospital, a unit of Manipal University, Manipal when it recognized the Hand Sanitization Relay held on the occasion of Global Hand Washing Day on October 15, 2016 as a world record. Kasturba Hospital achieved the distinction by improving upon the earlier record of 1711 held by Indraprastha Apollo Hospital, New Delhi, with a count of 3422.

 

The event itself witnessed a marathon exercise by the hospital personnel assisted by the health sciences institutions of Manipal University and others from the neighbouring district of Mangaluru. It began at 7 am in the morning and ended around midnight. Over 5,000 faculty, students and staff had registered to take part, but when the event closed after 3422 persons had completed the task of washing hands. And Guinness has accepted the same number for the record.

 

 

The certificate from Guinness Book of World Records was received last week. It was officially handed over to Dr (Col) M Dayananda Medical Superintendent and COO Kasturba Hospital Manipal by the Pro Chancellor, Manipal University Dr H.S. Ballal in the Board Room at Manipal University building on Friday. Dr H Vinod Bhat, Vice Chancellor Manipal University and Dr Narayana Sabhahit, Registrar were present.

 

Elaborate arrangements were made at Marena, on the jogging track and was closely monitored by external judges. There were 75 stewards, 9 witnesses and 8 time keepers who ensured smooth conduct of the program. On completion of the hand washing relay, the details were sent to the Guinness Book of World Record at London. Following the evaluation by the technical team, Guinness Book of World Record declared Kasturba Hospital, a unit of Manipal University as the official record holder.

 

Dr H S Ballal Pro Chancellor Manipal University said, “We celebrated the Global Hand washing Day as a social initiative to spread the message of hygiene of our hands and encourage doctors and all other healthcare professionals to make hand washing a regular habit thus preventing the nosocomial infections.”

 

Dr H Vinod Bhat Vice Chancellor Manipal University said, “Proper hand sanitizing plays a key role in controlling the spread of communicable diseases”. We should practice this in our daily lives to prevent the communicable diseases,” he added.  Dr (Col) M Dayananda congratulated and thanked the doctors, nursing staff and the administrative team of Kasturba Medical College and Hospital Manipal and all health science institutions that took part.