2014 Articles

Review of ‘Clean Hands Save Lives’, written by Thierry Crouzet

Larson, Elaine L.

The concept that a ‘tipping point’ occurs when a behaviour or cultural norm reaches a threshold when sufficient knowledge, information, expectation and/or peer pressure is amassed is beautifully illustrated in this book, which tells the story of Dr. Pittet’s hand hygiene journey. Malcolm Gladwell popularized this idea in his 2000 bestseller, “The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make A Big Difference”. In his book, Mr. Gladwell uses the
example of an epidemic such as measles which starts with a very few cases, but reaches a point at which the spread is rapid and daunting in its scope. Crouzet’s book has produced an easy-to-read narrative of Dr. Pittet’s tipping
point contributions to global health through his work on hand hygiene.