Infection prevention and control
The Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) Technical and Clinical Hub team provides technical leadership and coordination of the IPC work at WHO headquarters, including through the IPC Taskforce. It also coordinates the work on sepsis. The IPC Hub is located within the Integrated Health Services (IHS) department in the Universal Health Coverage and Life Course division and works jointly with the IPC team in the WHO’s Health Emergencies (WHE) division and the AMR division. The IPC Hub team, along with the IPC WHE team, co-leads the IPC pillar of the WHO response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Key technical areas of work
HIGHLIGHTS
Global Strategy on IPC
May 2022, the World Health Assembly approved a ‘Global Strategy on Infection Prevention and Control’ through a resolution that aims to position IPC as central to infectious hazard and health emergency preparedness and response, and as key to addressing the silent burden of healthcare associated infections (HAIs) and antimicrobial resistance (AMR). It positions IPC in the context of health system strengthening and high-quality care delivery, with the aim of improving patient and health worker safety.
World Hand Hygiene Day 2023
Accelerate action together. SAVE LIVES – Clean Your Hands!
News and events
Country stories
All →To help inspire your IPC implementation journey, WHO is and has been collecting country stories from around the world to showcase exemplars of IPC implementation as they relate to the WHO core components.
Latest country story:
Events calendar
Calls
Upcoming calls for proposal will be posted here.
Publications
Latest publications
All →Hand hygiene is vital for safe health care delivery, yet practices at the point of care remain suboptimal worldwide. A comprehensive research agenda...
The WHO assessment tool on infection prevention and control (IPC) minimum requirements for primary health care facilities is a tool to support the implementation...
18 November 2022
Decontamination and reprocessing of medical devices for health care facilities: aide-memoire
Decontamination of medical devices plays an important role in the prevention of health care-associated infections. It includes cleaning, disinfection and/or...
Standard precautions aim to protect both health workers and patients by reducing the risk of transmission of microorganisms from both recognized and unrecognized...
