The World Health Organization (WHO) has launched a comprehensive new handbook aimed at bolstering healthcare-associated infection (HAI) surveillance worldwide. Designed to empower countries and healthcare facilities to strengthen their infection prevention and control (IPC) programmes, the WHO’s new guide also includes simplified and validated case definitions for HAI surveillance, enabling more consistent data collection across diverse settings, including low-resource environments.
HAIs are a leading cause of harm in healthcare settings worldwide, affecting millions of patients and placing significant strain on healthcare resources. With this new resource, WHO aims to empower countries to monitor and reduce the burden of these infections through improved surveillance systems. This handbook provides clear, evidence-based methods and best practices to measure the prevalence of HAIs and implement effective strategies for their prevention.
The case definitions within the handbook have been developed and validated by international experts with input from low-resource settings, ensuring they are accessible and applicable across a broad spectrum of healthcare environments. This comprehensive, globally inclusive approach is expected to help countries better identify HAIs, making it easier to track infections and improve patient outcomes.
Practical Guidance: The handbook outlines the key principles, objectives, and methods for effective HAI surveillance, aimed at facilitating the development of national and facility-level surveillance systems.
Simplified Case Definitions: The new case definitions, designed with low-resource settings in mind, streamline the identification and classification of HAIs, ensuring consistency and accuracy in data collection across regions.
Global and Regional Benchmarking: With standardized case definitions, the WHO is enhancing the ability to benchmark HAI data on a global scale, fostering improved collaboration and comparison between countries.
Capacity Building Initiatives: WHO will also focus on capacity-building efforts to strengthen the skills of healthcare workers in the detection and surveillance of HAIs. These initiatives will provide crucial support to countries as they seek to establish and expand effective HAI surveillance systems.
Synergies with Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR): The new surveillance framework integrates HAI tracking with AMR surveillance, offering a comprehensive approach to addressing the challenges of infections and antimicrobial resistance in healthcare settings.
The launch of this handbook and the updated case definitions is a significant milestone in global efforts to address the silent crisis of healthcare-associated infections. By enhancing surveillance systems, WHO aims to enable better response strategies, reduce the global burden of HAIs, and ultimately improve patient safety across the world’s healthcare systems.
“The integration of these surveillance strategies will help healthcare systems better identify, track, and manage infections,” said Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General. “This is an essential step towards safeguarding patients and ensuring that healthcare systems are equipped to prevent the spread of infections in diverse settings.”
WHO will also host a webinar to present the key principles and content of the new HAI surveillance handbook. The session will outline the development process behind the new case definitions and provide an overview of the capacity-building initiatives currently underway. The webinar will also explore synergies between HAI and AMR surveillance programmes, underscoring the global importance of coordinated efforts to combat infections and antimicrobial resistance.
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