20-22 July 2015, Monrovia, Liberia
This document aims to support those working in primary care to strengthen IPC, informed by existing WHO IPC guidance and implementation resources.
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Many of the existing WHO IPC guidance and implementation resources initially developed for acute health care facilities have a potential utility for IPC in primary care. However, navigating these resources to locate relevant content for IPC in primary care can be challenging as some documents can span over 100 pages. This document extracts relevant content, bringing together existing WHO IPC standards, indicators and implementation approaches that are focused on, or directly relevant to IPC in primary care. It should also be used to identify resources suitable for use in primary care that can be embedded within relevant IPC or other health programmes.
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Infectious disease outbreaks and epidemics are increasing in frequency, scale and impact. Health care facilities can amplify the transmission of emerging infectious diseases or multidrug-resistant o
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rganisms (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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Ebola disease and Marburg disease outbreaks continue to occur in Africa, with increased frequency. In addition to resulting in high mortality and morbidity, the outbreaks generate fear
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and mistrust about the response activities within the communities affected.
Infection prevention and control (IPC) is a key pillar in the outbreak response; adherence to IPC practices can prevent and control transmission of infections to health and care workers, patients and their family members.
During the 2014-2016 West African Ebola disease outbreak, there was an urgent need for rapid IPC guidance to help support ministries of health, health-care providers and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). In response, WHO produced several documents related to the outbreak based on expert opinion, including IPC-specific documents and documents on clinical management that also referenced key IPC principles and practices. Since that time, many practices in the field have become institutionalized.
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The purpose of this document is to present and promote the minimum requirements for IPC programmes at the national and health care facility level,
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identified by expert consensus according to available evidence and in the context of the WHO core components.
The minimum requirements are defined as: IPC standards that should be in place at the national and facility level to provide minimum protection and safety to patients, HCWs and visitors, based on the WHO core components for IPC programmes.
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The Infection prevention and control in the context of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19): a li
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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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Interim practical manual supporting implementation of the WHO guidelines on core components of infection prevention and
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control programmes
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The Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) Gu
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idelines aim to support healthcare workers improve quality and safety health care. The Guidelines further aim to promote and facilitate the overall goal of IPC by providing evidence-based recommendations on the critical aspects of IPC, focusing on the fundamental principles and priority action areas. All health service organizations should consider the risk of healthcare-associated infection(s) (HAI) and antimicrobial resistance (AMR) transmission to implement these recommendations. The IPC Guidelines also set national standards for the prevention and control of HAIs and to ensure compliance to the National Quality Standards.
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at the national and acute health care facility level
The Infection prevention and control in the context of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19): a li
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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 6.0) includes fifteen statements on IPC measures in health-care settings (screening and patient placement, ventilation, physical barriers, environmental cleaning, waste management, amongst others) as well as one statement on mask fit in the community context.
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This document aims to provide guidance to healthcare facilities and healthcare providers in the European Union/European Economic Area (EU/EEA) and the United Kingdom (UK) on preparedness
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and infection prevention and control (IPC) measures for the management of possible and confirmed cases of COVID-19 in healthcare settings, including long-term care facilities (LTCFs). In addition, this document addresses the management of clinical diagnostic specimens at laboratories in the EU/EEA. This is the sixth update of the ECDC guidance on ‘Infection prevention and control and preparedness for COVID-19 in healthcare settings’, and replaces the document dated 6 October 2020.
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This manual presents a compelling case for action on carbapenem-resistant organisms (CROs) and describes the linkages between the prevention and
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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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No country can claim to be free from health-care associated infections, therefore, improvement of infection prevention and
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control (IPC) strategies is essential. WHO recommends the use of multimodal improvement strategies to implement IPC interventions. These include each item of standard and transmission-based precautions according to national guidelines or standard operating procedures and under the coordination of the national IPC focal point (or team, if existing). This publication consists of three focused improvement tools, called “aide-memoires”, which focus on 1) respiratory and hand hygiene, 2) personal protective equipment, and 3) environmental cleaning, waste and linen management, all elements of standard, droplet/contact and airborne precautions.
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22 April 2022, This document provides updated interim recommendations on the use of masks by health workers providing care to patients with suspected or confirmed COVID-19. This update is prompted by new evidence around mask use and COVID-19 transmi
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ssion, as well as the emergence of variants of concern including Omicron. Masks continue to be a critical tool to prevent the spread of COVID-19. These interim guidelines supersede the recommendations provided in the WHO recommendations on mask use by health workers, in light of the Omicron variant of concern published on 22 December 2022.
WHO continually evaluates the emerging evidence and will review these interim recommendations within two months and issue new guidance as needed.
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Infection prevention and control (IPC) in a C
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TC/ CTU IPC are all practical measures taken in the healthcare facility to prevent harm caused by infections to patients, health workers and communities.
The main goal of IPC in the cholera response is to
• To reduce transmission of health care-associated infections of cholera and any other infectious disease
• To enhance the safety of staff, patients and visitors
• To enhance the ability of the organization/health care facility to respond to an outbreak
• To reduce the risk of the hospital (health care facility) itself amplifying the outbreak
Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH)
WASH are all measures taken to guarantee environmental hygiene, safe water of all used within the health facility. It encompasses water, sanitation, waste management, cleaning within the health facility which in this case is CTU/C. A complete WASH package in the CTU/CTC reduces the risk of spread of Vibrio cholerae inside and outside the CTC/CTU.
The probability of spreading or acquiring cholera through a CTC/CTU can be highly reduced when proper IPC and WASH measures are respected, followed and monitored. These measures are, in principle, valid in CTC/CTUs and ORPs, although they need to be adapted to the specific characteristics of the facility concerned.
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The report reveals that good IPC programmes can reduce health care infections by 70 %. oday, out of every 100 patients in acute-care hospitals, seven patients in high-income countries and 15 patient
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s in low- and middle-income countries will acquire at least one health care-associated infection (HAI) during their hospital stay. On average, 1 in every 10 affected patients will die from their HAI.
People in intensive care and newborns are particularly at risk. And the report reveals that approximately one in four hospital-treated sepsis cases and almost half of all cases of sepsis with organ dysfunction treated in adult intensive-care units are health care-associated.
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