Infection prevention and control - Guidance to action tools (2021)

No country can claim to be free of health-care associated infections (HAI), therefore improving infection prevention and control (IPC) strategies is essential. WHO recommends the use of multimodal improvement strategies (MMIS) to implement IPC interventions. This includes each item of standard and transmission-based precautions according to national guidelines/standard operating procedures (SOPs) and under the coordination of the national IPC focal point (or team, if existing).

This document includes three focused improvement tools, or “aide-memoires”, for

1. respiratory and hand hygiene,
2. personal protective equipment (PPE), and
3. environmental cleaning, waste and linen management, which are all elements of standard, droplet/contact and airborne precautions.

Each aide-memoire is approximately five pages in length and additional information, including instructions for use and what success might look like, is also provided within the document.

These aide-memoires will support putting IPC guidance into action. They aim to ensure that local improvements associated with evidence-based IPC recommendations, including for COVID-19, influenza, etc., can be reliably put into place. The three aide-memoires provide action checks to empower IPC focal points and other leaders to take a range of actions that will sustain improvements in practices.

They utilize a proven multimodal improvement strategy and help to meet WHO Guidelines on core components of infection prevention and control programmes at the national and acute health care facility level.