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Overview
Infections acquired in health care settings, including those antimicrobial resistant, cause tremendous suffering to patients, families and health workers and pose a high burden on health systems. Most of these infections are preventable with appropriate infection prevention and control (IPC) programmes and practices and basic water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) services. Improving IPC and WASH saves lives and yields high economic gains. At the 77th World Health Assembly, all countries adopted the WHO global action plan and monitoring framework 2024-2030*.*
This document provides the evidence on the expected return in investment in and guidance for implementing and monitoring the WHO global action plan on IPC at the country level*.*
Improving IPC and WASH through the fulfilment of at least the WHO minimum requirements for IPC should be an urgent priority for all countries in order to provide minimum protection and safety to patients, health workers, as well as families and visitors to facilities, and achieve targets for health care-associated infections’ (HAIs) and AMR reduction.
Action and investment in IPC and WASH by international key players, donors and non-governmental organizations, can make a huge difference both at the global level and in support to countries and facilities, where resources and expertise are limited. WHO is in the position of leading and coordinating these efforts and will strongly support country efforts directly.