The World Health Organization (WHO) has this month (September) published a new operational guide for managing infectious diarrhoea in healthcare settings. The guide is intended for hospital administrators, water sanitation and hygiene specialists, food safety and nutrition service managers, infection prevention and control professionals, occupational health focal point and health and care workers in healthcare settings.
The guide is structured into three parts: water, sanitisation and hygiene (WASH) and waste management; food safety management; and infection prevention and control. Detailed procedures are set out, as each of these areas requires dedicated planning, staffing, training and resources to mitigate the entry points, transmission risks and reservoirs of infection that can cause infectious diarrhoea in healthcare settings.
The key messages of this guidance are to:
• Evaluate and improve water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) infrastructure and waste management systems
• Implement food safety management measures for safe handling, preparation and serving of food
• Screen all patients – inpatient and outpatient – for diarrhoea symptoms upon initial contact in any healthcare setting; use contact precautions when infectious diarrhoea is suspected.
In addition to the detailed sections on these key messages, the operational guide also has sections on health and care working training – monitoring and exposure management, and healthcare associated infection (HAI) surveillance.
Also look out for the Infection Prevention & Control feature in the September/October 2024 issue of HEFMA’s Pulse magazine.
