'Greet With Namaste, Bye-Bye Handshake': A Behavioural Change Campaign For Infection Prevention In The Emergency Department From Jodhpur, India

To the Editor,\n\nCross-infection by healthcare workers (HCWs) with contaminated hands is a major source of spread of infection. Transmission or prevention, it all remains in the hands. In this COVID-19 pandemic, greeting with a handshake is no longer acceptable socially or medically. In February 2020, we initiated the ‘NAMASTE CAMPAIGN’. ‘NAMASTE’—greeting with folded hands, an ancient Indian cultural practice means ‘The divine in me bows to the divine in you’. It spreads positivity but not infection, which is essential for mental fitness of emotionally strained HCWs in the pandemic.1 Our centre is an 800 bedded tertiary care hospital in Rajasthan, India, catering to a population of 12 million. Daily …