Healthcare facilities following good hand hygiene and other cost-effective practices can prevent 70 percent of infections, the first infection control report from the World Health Organization found.
The "Global Report on Infection Prevention and Control," which was previewed by the organization May 6, compiles evidence from scientific literature, various reports and new data from WHO studies.
"The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed many challenges and gaps in IPC in all regions and countries, including those which had the most advanced IPC programmes," said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, PhD, director general of the World Health Organization.
"It has also provided an unprecedented opportunity to take stock of the situation and rapidly scale up outbreak readiness and response through IPC practices, as well as strengthening IPC programmes across the health system. Our challenge now is to ensure that all countries are able to allocate the human resources, supplies and infrastructures this requires," he said.