Infection prevention and control guideline for Ebola and Marburg diseases

Overview

This WHO guideline provides evidence-informed recommendations for infection prevention and control (IPC) during Ebola disease and Marburg disease outbreaks, with an initial focus on health-care settings. It updates and consolidates previous WHO guidance using the GRADE and evidence-to-decision methodology to support policy-makers, health-care administrators, IPC specialists, logisticians, community workers, burial teams, and health and care workers. The guideline aims to reduce transmission risks, protect patients, health and care workers, and visitors, and strengthen preparedness and response across different levels of health-care delivery. The document addresses key IPC measures including screening and triage, patient isolation, personal protective equipment, hand hygiene, glove disinfection, management of occupational exposures, environmental cleaning and disinfection, waste management, and the safe handling of deceased persons. It presents new recommendations and good practice statements while retaining selected recommendations from earlier WHO guidance where appropriate. Recognizing that the available evidence remains limited in several areas, the guideline incorporates expert consensus and implementation considerations and is intended to be updated as new evidence emerges.