According to the cdc the single most effective means of preventing infection is

According to the cdc the single most effective means of preventing infection is

Despite its simplicity, hand hygiene is still poorly practiced in many health care facilities.

    • 1 in 4 health care facilities do not have basic water services, which means that 1.8 billion people currently lack basic water services at their health care facility, while 712 million have no running water at their health care facility.
    • 1 in 3 facilities lack hand hygiene facilities at the point of care.
    • Compliance with hand hygiene best practices is only around 9% during care of critically ill patients in low-income countries.
    • Levels of hand hygiene compliance for high-income countries rarely exceed 70%, calling for additional efforts to improve practices all over the world.

These deficiencies in infrastructure, practices and culture have tremendous consequences on patient and health worker safety and so on all people’s lives.

    • Globally, out of every 100 patients, 7 in developed and 15 in developing countries will acquire at least one HAI in acute care hospitals.
    • HAIs in adult intensive care units and neonatal infection rates are 2–3 and 3–20 times higher, respectively, in low- and middle-income countries than in high-income countries.
    • 8.9 million HAIs occur every year in acute and long-term care facilities in the European Union and European Economic Area (EU/EEA).
    • 1 million of the 4.1 million maternal and neonatal deaths annually worldwide may be related to unhygienic birthing practices, including lack of hand hygiene.

A variety of basic actions can be used to prevent and control infections.

WHO’s guidelines on core components of infection prevention and control programmes promote the implementation of standard precautions such as:

  • Hand hygiene. Hand hygiene is the single most effective measure to stop transmission of health care associated pathogens.
  • Use of personal protective equipment
  • Sterilization and medical devices decontamination
  • Applying principles of asepsis
  • Prevention of injuries from sharp instruments
  • Proper patient placement
  • Environmental cleaning
  • Waste management
  • Safe handling of linen and laundry

Improved water sanitation and hygiene heavily reduced wound sepsis after C-section

Description: Health care in Sierra Leone crippled in the post-conflict period. A lack of electricity, water and basic supplies used for infection prevention and control made safe deliveries difficult. At one hospital – the Bo District Hospital – 60% of women who gave birth through caesarian-section got sepsis due to infected wounds. To address these issues, development partners in Sierra Leone that worked on maternal and newborn health shifted the focus of their programs. Boreholes were drilled, water storage facilities were introduced and a generator was supplied to the operating theatre of the Bo District Hospital. Staff was trained in water sanitation and hygiene and wound care.

Place: Bo District Hospital, Sierra Leone.

Setting: Maternity unit

Finding: Within a period of 3 months, post-caesarian wound sepsis decreased from 60% to 10%. Use of antibiotics decreased dramatically. Within 6 months, more than twice as many women chose to deliver at this maternity unit since their improved services quickly became known to patients.

Inclusion of Real-Time Hand Hygiene Observation and Feedback in a Multimodal Hand Hygiene Improvement Strategy in Low-Resource Settings

Description:This prospective quality improvement study evaluated preintervention and postintervention adherence with the 5 Moments for Hand Hygiene, as suggested by the WHO. A novel data collection, analysis, and visualization tool called the Hand Hygiene Observation Toolkit (HHOT) was developed to monitor adherence to hand hygiene guidelines among health care workers.

Place: Anka General Hospital and Noma Children’s Hospital, Nigeria.

Setting: Pediatric and postoperative wards.

Finding:Overall hand hygiene adherence increased from 32.4% to 57.4% This suggests that the novel tool used in this study may contribute to comprehensive IPC strategies and strengthening of hand hygiene behavior among all healthcare workers in healthcare facilities in low-resource settings.

A selection of resources for basic interventions are found in the table below. In addition, many countries have their own guidelines that are adapted to the local circumstances.

Educational materials are collected in RAISE AWARENESS: Education and training.

For tools and guidance how to measure the effects of interventions, go to MEASURE.

Selected Resources

Resource Description
Strengthening infection prevention and control in primary care
Guidelines. WHO document describing already existing acute health care IPC measures  that can be further implemented in primary care systems. 
WHO Hand hygiene implementation tools Information portal. WHO tools and resources for hand hygiene interventions, such as Guide to local production: WHO-recommended handrub formulations, Tips for implementing a patient participation programme, and the Five moments for hand hygiene poster in multiple languages, as well as local adaptations of tools. From here you can also access:
  • Training tools
  • Monitoring tools
  • Guidelines and evidence
Hand Hygiene Observation Toolkit (HHOT) Toolkit designed by MSF to enable users to observe, record, analyze and share hand hygiene observations across facilities in low resource settings. The toolkit covers an open-source application for mobile devices and an interactive analytical dashboard.
A Guide to the Implementation of the WHO Multimodal Hand Hygiene Improvement Strategy Manual to assist health care facilities to implement improvements in hand hygiene in accordance with the WHO guidelines on hand hygiene in health care. Available in English and French.
Infection Control Assessment Tool (ICAT) for Primary Health Care Facilities Tool to help improve practices for the prevention and control of infections through easy to apply instruments, and highlight deficiencies in current practices as well as proposing reformatory actions.
Infection prevention and control – Guidance to action tools Tools. Three improvement tools (called “aide-memoires”) to help put IPC guidance into action with the focus on 1)‎ respiratory and hand hygiene, 2)‎ personal protective equipment, and 3)‎ environmental cleaning, waste and linen management. Provide action checks to empower IPC focal points and other leaders to take actions that will sustain improvements in practices.

Infection Prevention A reference booklet for health care providers (PDF 0.9 Mb)

Booklet. A quick desk reference for infection prevention and control in resource limited settings. Available in English and French (Earlier version in Spanish). Step-by-step instructions for how to perform critical procedures.
The ISID Guide to Infection Control in the Healthcare setting Guide that summarizes principles, interventions, and strategies to reduce healthcare associated infections. Contains more than 60 short chapters on a variety of topics often specifically addressing settings with limited resources. See for example chapters on:
  • Hand Hygiene and Hand Hygiene Monitoring
  • The Health Care Worker as Source of Transmission
  • Emergency Department and Receiving Areas
  • Isolation of Communicable Diseases
  • Waste Management
  • Hospital water

The guide is also available in Spanish.

Water and Sanitation for Health Facility Improvement Tool ‘WASH FIT’ Framework and tools to help monitor improvements to water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) in health care facilities, to improve quality of care (by WHO and UNICEF). Largely designed for primary, and in some instances secondary, health care facilities in resource-limited settings. The WASH FIT Mobile is a free complementary tool for the same purpose available here.
Best Practices for Environmental Cleaning in Healthcare Facilities in Resource-Limited Settings Manual from Infection Control Africa Network (ICAN) and CDC. The best practices are divided into three chapters focusing on 1) environmental cleaning programs 2) supplies and equipment and 3) procedures. Should be used and implemented within the framework of existing IPC programs. Also available in French, Spanish and Portuguese.
Natural ventilation for infection control in health-care settings Report that gives an overview on natural ventilation and its design requirements in relation to infection control in health care settings.
Reducing hospital-acquired infections and improving the rational use of antibiotics in a developing country: an effectiveness study Intervention example. Describes the implementation of a multifaceted infection control and antibiotic stewardship program in Indonesia, with good results in terms of reducing hospital-acquired infections and antibiotic use.
Tackling Antimicrobial Resistance: Supporting national measures to address infection prevention and control, and water, sanitation and hygiene in health care settings (PDF) Fact sheet. WHO and UNICEF fact sheet on AMR, infection prevention and water, sanitation and hygiene with recommended actions.
Guidelines library – Resources toward elimination of HAIs Guidelines from CDC on strategies for surveillance, prevention, and control of healthcare-associated infections, antimicrobial resistance and related events in healthcare settings. The page includes for example:

Guideline for Disinfection and Sterilization
Guideline for Isolation Precautions

Guide to Infection Prevention for Outpatient Settings: Minimum Expectations for Safe Care Guide with infection prevention recommendations for outpatient (ambulatory care) settings based primarily on elements of standard precautions and represents the minimum infection prevention expectations for safe care in ambulatory care settings. From US CDC.
AMR travel tool Framework. Online platform to support clinical management of patients returning from international travel. Focuses on assessing risks of being colonized by antibiotic resistant bacteria. The tool is based on surveillance data from multiple sources. Also provides a section with pre-travel advice for travellers.

What is the single effective most effective way to prevent infections?

Take action and practice hand hygiene often. Use soap and water or an alcoholbased hand rub to clean your hands. It only takes 15 seconds to practice hand hygiene.

What does the CDC recommend to prevent the spread of infection?

Clean your hands, cover coughs and sneezes, and follow recommendations or local or state orders for wearing masks to reduce the spread of infection. Protect high-risk populations. Certain groups of people have a higher risk of developing serious illness from COVID-19.

What is the single most effective way to prevent infections and disease transmission?

Hand washing is one of the simplest, most effective ways to prevent the spread of many types of infection and illness, including foodborne illness.