This interim guidance is for LTCF managers and corresponding infection prevention and ...s="attribute-to-highlight medbox">control (IPC) focal persons in LTCF and updates the guidance published in March 2020. The objective of this document is to provide guidance on IPC in LTCFs in the context of COVID-19 to 1) prevent COVID-19-virus from entering the facility and spreading within the facility, and 2) to support safe conditions for visiting through the rigorous application of IPC procedures for the residents’ well-being. WHO will update these recommendations as new information becomes available.
Availabel in English, French, Russian and Spanish
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Infectious disease outbreaks and epidemics are increasing in frequency, scale and impact. Health care facilities can amplify the transmission of em...erging infectious diseases or multidrug-resistant organisms (MDRO) within their settings and communities. Therefore, evidence-based infection prevention and control (IPC) measures in health care facilities are critical for preventing and containing outbreaks, while still delivering safe, effective and quality health care. This toolkit is intended to support IPC improvements for outbreak management in all such facilities, both public and private throughout the health system. Specifically, this document systematically describes a framework of overarching principles to approach the preparedness, readiness and response outbreak management phases. The document also provides a toolkit of resource links to guide specific actions for each infectious disease and/or MDRO outbreak management phase at any health facility. This document is specifically tailored to an audience of stakeholders who establish and monitor health care facility-level IPC programs including: IPC focal points, epidemiologists, public health experts, outbreak response incident managers, facility-level IPC committee(s), safety and quality leads and managers, and other facility level IPC stakeholders.
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Interim rapid response guidance, 10 June 2022.
It includes considerations for certain populations such as patients with mild disease with considerations ...for community care, patients with moderate to severe disease, sexually active persons, pregnant or breastfeeding women, children and young persons. The guidance also addresses considerations for clinical management such as the use of therapeutics, nutritional support, mental health services, and post-infection follow-up.
The document provides guidance for clinicians, health facility managers, health workers and infection prevention and control practitioners including but not limited to those working in primary care clinics, sexual health clinics, emergency departments, infectious diseases clinics, genitourinary clinics, dermatology clinics, maternity services, paediatrics, obstetrics and gynaecology and acute care facilities that provide care for patients with suspected or confirmed monkeypox
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The WHO document "Integrating the prevention and control of noncommunicable diseases in HIV/AIDS..., tuberculosis, and sexual and reproductive health programmes: implementation guidance" provides a framework for integrating noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) into existing health programs for HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis (TB), and sexual and reproductive health (SRH). It emphasizes the importance of a people-centered approach to enhance healthcare accessibility and efficiency, especially in low-resource settings. The document outlines strategies for strengthening policy, financing, capacity building, and health system infrastructure. It offers actionable steps, tools, and case studies to support countries in reducing the burden of NCDs through integrated, holistic care within primary health services.
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The WHO continuously reviews available data on SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern. For this version, the global epidemiological
situation of the COVID-19 pandemic as of 21 January 2022 – at a time when the Omicron VOC had been identified in 171
coun...tries across all six WHO Regions and was rapidly replacing Delta worldwide – was considered Omicron has a substantial growth advantage, higher secondary attack rates and a higher observed reproduction number than Delta.
There is now significant evidence that immune evasion contributes to the rapid spread of Omicron. Other factors may be a shorter
serial interval (by about 0.8 to 1.2 days compared to Delta) and potential increased intrinsic transmission fitness . There is
growing evidence that with Omicron, there is lower vaccine effectiveness (VE) against infection and symptomatic disease soon after vaccination compared to Delta. There is also evidence of accelerated waning of VE over time of the primary series against infection and symptomatic disease for the studied vaccines. Further studies are required to better understand the drivers of transmission and declining incidence in various settings. These factors include the intrinsic transmission fitness properties of the virus, degree of immune evasion, vaccination coverage and level of vaccine-derived and post-infection immunity, levels of social mixing and degree of application of public health and social measures (PHSM).
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The Infection prevention and control in the context of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19): a li...ving guideline consolidates technical guidance developed and published during the COVID-19 pandemic into evidence-informed recommendations for infection prevention and control (IPC). This living guideline is available both online and PDF.
**This version of the living guideline (version 5.0) **includes the following seven revised statements for the prevention, identification and management of SARS-CoV-2 infections among health and care workers:
a good practice statement on national and subnational testing strategies;
a good practice statement on passive syndromic surveillance of health and care workers;
a good practice statement on prioritizing health and care workers for SARS-CoV-2 testing;
a good practice statement on protocols for reporting and managing health and care worker exposures;
a good practice statement to limit in-person work of health and care workers with active SARS-CoV-2 infections;
a statement on high-risk exposures and quarantine; and,
a conditional recommendation on the duration of isolation for health and care workers.
Understanding the updated section
Prevention of infections in the health care setting includes a multi-pronged and multi-factorial approach that includes IPC and occupational health and safety measures and adherence to Public Health and Social Measures in the community by the health workforce. The underlying infection prevention and control strategy of this section is the notion that early identification of symptomatic cases, testing and quarantining/isolating health and care workers decreases the risk of nosocomial infection to patients and to other health and care workers.
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This second edition of the Infection prevention and control in the context of coronavirus disease...> (COVID-19): A living guideline provides the most up to date technical guidance on mask use in community settings in the context of COVID-19.
In this edition, new information includes updated mask recommendations for children in community settings including updated age specific recommendations, statements for children with disabilities and those at high risk for complications related to COVID-19 infection. Updated implementation considerations for mask use in school settings are also included.
This living guideline is being published using the MAGICApp online publishing platform https://app.magicapp.org/#/guideline/Lr2a8L , as well as in PDF copy on the WHO website.
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Water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) are critical in the prevention and care for all of the 17 n...eglected tropical diseases (NTDs) scheduled for intensified control or elimination by 2020.
Provision of safe water, sanitation and hygiene is one of the five key interventions within the global NTD roadmap. Yet to date, the WASH component of the strategy has received little attention and the potential to link efforts on WASH and NTDs has been largely untapped.
Focused efforts on WASH are urgently needed if the global NTD roadmap targets are to be met. This is especially needed for NTDs where transmission is most closely linked to poor WASH conditions such as soil-transmitted helminthiasis, schistosomiasis, trachoma and lymphatic filariasis.
This strategy aims to mobilise WASH and NTD actors to work together towards the roadmap targets.
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Biology, Diagnosis and Treatment, Epidemiology and Prevention
7 June 2021
The Africa Regulatory Taskforce is a joint effort established by the Africa Centres for Disease Control ...light medbox">and Prevention (Africa CDC), the African Union Development Agency (AUDA-NEPAD) coordinated African Medicines Regulatory Harmonization (AMRH) Initiative, and the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) African Vaccine Regulatory Forum (AVAREF) to enable and provide support for an effective regulatory framework for COVID-19 Vaccines in Africa.
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Patients with diabetes are at increased risk of developing cardiovascular disease (CVD) with its manifestations of coronary artery disease (CAD), heart failure (HF), atrial fibrillation (AF), ...class="attribute-to-highlight medbox">and stroke, as well as aortic and peripheral artery diseases. In addition, diabetes is a major risk factor for developing chronic kidney disease (CKD), which in itself is associated with developing CVD. The combination of diabetes with these cardio-renal comorbidities enhances the risk not only for cardiovascular (CV) events but also for CV and all-cause mortality. The current European Society of Cardiology (ESC) Guidelines on the management of cardiovascular disease in patients with diabetes are designed to guide prevention and management of the manifestations of CVD in patients with diabetes based on data published until end of January 2023. Over the last decade, the results of various large cardiovascular outcome trials (CVOTs) in patients with diabetes at high CV risk with novel glucose- lowering agents, such as sodium–glucose co-transporter-2 (SGLT2) inhibitors and glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonists (RAs), but also novel non-steroidal mineralocorticoid receptor antagonists (MRAs), such as finerenone have substantially expanded available therapeutic op-
tions, leading to numerous evidence-based recommendations for the management of this patient population.
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This technical package represents a select group of strategies based on the best available evidence to help communities and states sharpen their focus on prevention activities with the greatest pote...ntial to prevent suicide
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Formularies are lists of antibiotics that are suggested for certain healthcare settings. In developing a recommended formulary, countries should consider the needs of patients and facilities where t...hey receive care. For example, clinicians in rural or primary health centers may need wide access to first-line antibiotics (e.g., penicillin, ampicillin, TMP-SMX), but last resort antibiotics such as carbapenems or colistin might be limited to tertiary care hospitals. Efforts to create antibiotic formularies may be linked to efforts within countries to create or update essential medicine lists (EML).
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Recommendations of the Healthcare Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee and the HICPAC/SHEA/APIC/IDSA Hand Hygiene Task Force
Key stakeholders must be involved in the planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of NCD plans and programmes. Within a ministry of health there will be different types of stakeholders, s...uch as programme managers and senior managers in departments of prevention, health promotion, and hospital and health services. Other stakeholders may come from ministries for transport, economics, agriculture, and education, funding partners, nongovernmental organizations, civil society and community members. It is critical to ensure that there are clear and accurate descriptions of the policies, plans and programmes, so that all interventions, activities and desired outcomes are clearly understood by all involved in their evaluation.
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August 2020, The Africa Joint Continental Strategy for COVID-19 is underpinned by the need to limit transmission, prevent deaths and reduce associated harms. Participation by African nations in clin...ical trials is an essential step to ensure that sufficient data is generated on the safety and efficacy of the most promising vaccine candidates among the region’s populations.
While current COVID-19 clinical trial activity on the continent is limited, Africa has substantial experience and capabilities to conduct clinical trials for preventative vaccines across a range of diseases, and many organizations on the continent are working tirelessly to help prepare additional trials on potential COVID-19 vaccines. As the number of candidate vaccines in the development pipeline continues to increase, it will be important for organizations responsible for managing clinical trials in the region to partner with vaccine developers to identify potential and appropriate trial locations, provide support to remove any critical obstacles impeding commencement and progress of trials, and to provide oversight ensuring that trials are conducted safely and ethically.
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This manual presents a compelling case for action on carbapenem-resistant organisms (CROs) and describes the linkages between the prevention ...class="attribute-to-highlight medbox">and control of CROs and the Global Action Plan on Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR). It describes how the eight recommendations contained within the World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines for the prevention and control of carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae, Acinetobacter baumannii and Pseudomonas aeruginosa in health care facilities relate to general measures (that is, the core components of infection prevention and control [IPC] programmes) that need to be in place in all countries and health care facilities to prevent and control health care-associated infections (HAIs). The use of a stepwise approach is proposed to support implementation and improvement, based on the evidence and experience of what has worked in several health care settings worldwide. The focus is on adoptable and adaptable information.
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