What are the other WHO plans to further help the global community to prevent and control the spread of HAI?
WHO’s programmes on blood safety, immunization safety, safe clinical procedures, and safe water and sanitation, are all aimed at preventing and controlling the spread of HAI. The WHO also provides detailed advice on infection prevention and control in specific fields such as SARS, or preparedness against a potential influenza pandemic. Hand hygiene is an essential part of standard precautions, and together with droplet precautions (which essentially means wearing a mask when appropriate), is the primary action to limit cross-transmission of influenza, including influenza viruses of avian origin, which can be readily inactivated by alcohol-based hand rubs. Hand hygiene education and promotion campaigns in the community are ongoing in certain parts of the world (some are briefly reviewed in the Guidelines document itself), and strategies for education, promotion and behaviour changes, while sharing common elements, do differ in the community compared to health-care settings. The focus of
