For more than a decade, Jhpiego has been an international leader in advocating for and implementing evidence-based standards for infection prevention (IP) practices that protect both client and health care worker, developing and implementing efforts in more than 40 countries.

By systematically integrating IP into health care initiatives such as family planning, reproductive health, maternal and newborn health, and HIV/AIDS prevention programs, countries may reduce the spread of infectious diseases, promote the use of effective waste management, minimize environmental pollution and reduce the perceived risk of HIV infection for health care providers. Changing perceptions about this risk helps to reduce health care worker attrition and increases the likelihood that sufficient numbers of students will continue to complete basic education to become physicians, nurses, midwives and other types of health personnel.

Jhpiego Steps In

Jhpiego’s IP manual, Infection Prevention Guidelines for Healthcare Facilities with Limited Resources, offers guidance for hospitals and other facilities providing general, medical, surgical and obstetric services. The manual is supplemented by a learning resource package designed to provide basic IP knowledge and skills to all levels of health care workers in a six-day course. The course can be given as group-based training, adapted for self-directed learning or incorporated into a pre-service education curriculum of clinical training.

Two videos are also available for use with this training package—“Infection Prevention for Healthcare Facilities with Limited Resources: Overviewand Practical Training Demonstration Segments” and “Safe Practices in the Operating Room.” They describe the importance of IP practices in protecting clients and health care workers, and demonstrate the main steps of processing instruments. A Jhpiego ReproLearn® tutorial (CD-ROM and Web-based), part of the series “Care of Women with HIV Living in Limited-Resource Settings,” explains the risks of acquiring HIV and other diseases in health care settings and reviews IP practices to make the workplace safer.

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