Provides evidence- and expert consensus-based recommendations on the core components of infection prevention and control programmes.

These evidence-based guidelines on the core components of infection prevention and control (IPC) programmes at the national and facility level enhance the capacity of Member States to develop and implement effective technical and behaviour modifying interventions. They form a key part of strategies to prevent current and future threats from infectious diseases such as Ebola, strengthen health service resilience, help combat antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and improve the overall quality of health care delivery. They are also intended to support countries in the development of their own national protocols for IPC and AMR action plans and to support health care facilities as they develop or strengthen their own approaches to IPC.

There are eight defined guideline recommendations detailed in this resource, which include: (i) infection prevention and control programmes; (ii) national and facility level infection prevetino and control guidelines; (iii) infection prevention and control education and training; (iv) health care-associated infection surveillance; (v) multimodal strategies for implementing infection prevention and control activities; (vi) monitoring and evaluation and feedback; (vii) workload, staffing and bed occupancy at the facility level; and (viii) built environment, materials and equipment for infection prevention and control at the facility level.