Created to help reduce healthcare-associated infections in public hospitals in Brazil, the “Health in Our Hands” project has achieved its goal. From September 2024 to October 2025, the initiative reduced these infections by 26 percent in adult, pediatric, and neonatal intensive care units (ICUs).

With this reduction in hospital infections, Brazil’s public healthcare network, the SUS, is estimated to have saved more than BRL 150 million during this period.

The “Health in Our Hands” project was developed by hospitals participating in the SUS Institutional Development Support Program (Proadi-SUS), run by the Ministry of Health.

The project’s goal is to work in Brazilian ICUs to reduce cases of primary bloodstream infections associated with central venous catheters, ventilator-associated pneumonia, and urinary tract infections associated with urinary catheters.

“‘Health in Our Hands’ is an initiative that generates a learning movement in which everyone teaches and everyone learns and that, most importantly, addresses measures to combat the three main healthcare-associated infections in ICUs. We are talking about serious infections caused by catheters [central venous, mechanical ventilation, and urinary], which increase morbidity, mortality, and hospital costs and can be avoided with effective prevention measures,” said Claudia Garcia, the project’s general coordinator, in a statement.

Estimates indicate that healthcare-associated infections can cause up to 3.5 million deaths each year worldwide. In Brazil, preventing each of these infections helps save between BRL 60,000 and BRL 110,000.

The project aims to reduce these hospital infections by 50 percent by the end of this year.