1418 HealthMED - Volume 6 / Number 4 / 2012 Journal of Society for development in new net environment in B&H Abstract Introduction: Nosocomial infection is a ma- jor problem in modern medicine and a source of concern to health workers and the public. Hand hygiene is considered to be the most effective me- asure to prevent microbial cross-transmission and healthcare-associated infections. The aim of the research was to dermine the differences in attitu- des of health workers about the hand hygiene. Material and methods: The investigation was carried out in the period October 2009 - Febru- ary 2010, as a a cross-sectional study. The study included 500 healthcare workers of both sex em- ployed at the Clinical Centre of Vojvodina in units of intensive care, surgery, internal medicine, neu- rology, gynecology and obstetrics, at the Institute for Children and Youth Health Care of Vojvodina in Novi Sad, Institute of Oncology of Vojvodina and Institute for Pulmonary diseases in Sremska Kamenica. A special questionnaire was desingned for the purpose of this research. Results: The results showed that health wor- kers who participated in the survey had a basic knowledge of hand hygiene. Insuficient level of knowledge of medical staff was shown in terms of modern disinfectants. Conditions for performing hand hygiene depended on the department of the heath institution. Compared to others, in the units of intensive care were easily accessible more mo- dern means for hand hygiene. Conclusion: Education of health workers on hospital infections is essential for the higher level of quality of health care. This could contribute to reduction of the incidence of hospital infections in our hospital. Key words: Nosocomial Infection; Health Workers; Hand Hygiene; Introduction Nosocomial infection, i.e. hospital-acquired infection (HAI), is deined as a local of systemic disease resulting form an undesired body reaction to the presence of one or more infectious agents or their toxins, whish was neither present nor incu- bating at the time the patient was admitted to hos- pital. In the majority of HAI the typical incubation period is 48 hours, but it can extend even to one year if an implant or prosthesis is present (1). Patients, hospital staff and environment are major reservoirs of HAI (2). The patient-to-pati- ent transmission via the hands of medical staff im- plicates ive important moments: before touching the patient, before performing aseptic procedures, after contact with body luids and excretes, after contact with patient and after contact with objects around the patient. Patient’s skin can be coloni- zed by numerous organisms, which are necessari- ly transferred to surrounding surfaces, and hence contaminate the hospital environment. The han- ds of medical staff get contaminated through the contact with hospital environment and patient’s skin during routine activities, sometimes in spi- te of wearing gloves. It has been established that microorganism can survive on hands a long time after contamination. Without adequate hand hygi- ene, the pathogens are transmitted from the hands of hospital staff to patients either directly or in- directly via the hospital environment. In that res- pect, regular and appropriate hand hygiene is the single most effective measure to prevent hospital- associated infections (3, 4). Hospital-acquired infections are important pu- blic health problem worldwide. Their global pre- valence cannot be precisely quantiied due to wi- dely heterogeneous data obtained by diverse met- hodologies at different time periods. In the U.S.A., Knowledge, habits and attitudes of health care workers about hand hygiene Smiljana Rajcevic 1 , Predrag Djuric 1 , Maja Grujicic 3 , Tihomir Dugandzija 2 , Gorana Cosic 1 Institute of Public Health of Vojvodina, Novi Sad, Serbia, 1 Centers for Control and Prevention diseases, Novi Sad, Serbia, 2 Institute of Oncology Vojvodine, Serbia, 3 Faculty of Medicine, Novi Sad, Serbia.