WHO: The case for investment and action in infection prevention and control (5 March 2025)

Summary

Infections acquired in health care settings, including those antimicrobial resistant, cause tremendous suffering to patients, families and health workers and pose a high burden on health systems. Most of these infections are preventable with appropriate infection prevention and control (IPC) programmes and practices and basic water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) services. Improving IPC and WASH saves lives and yields high economic gains. At the 77th World Health Assembly, all countries adopted the WHO global action plan and monitoring framework 2024-2030.

This document provides the evidence on the expected return in investment in and guidance for implementing and monitoring the WHO global action plan on IPC at the country level.