Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) in the context of COVID-19

This course provides information on what facilities should be doing to be prepared to respond to a case of an emerging respiratory virus such as the novel coronavirus, how to identify a case once it occurs, and how to properly implement IPC measures to ensure there is no further transmission to HCW or to other patients and others in the healthcare facility.

This training is intended for healthcare workers and public health professionals, as it is focused on infection prevention and control.

This course has been updated in January 2022 and highlights the latest WHO guidance to date. Please note that our guidance is continuously being updated and the other language versions of the course will gradually be updated too.

Course information

This course is also available in the following languages:

русский - 日本語 - français - Bahasa Indonesia - Español - Português - Italiano - српски језик - 中文 - македонски јазик - Türkçe - język polski - Tiếng Việt - العربية - Nederlands - Tetun - বাংলা - فارسي - Soomaaliga - සිංහල -ภาษาไทย -தமிழ் - Казақ тілі

Overview:

This course will cover the Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) measures required in order to:

• Be prepared and ready to respond to an outbreak, in particular, the one due to COVID-19.
• Limit human to human transmission by way of implementing WHO recommended IPC interventions.
• Identify, isolate and report suspect and confirmed cases.

There are resources attached to each module to help you dive further into this topic.

Learning objectives:

On completion of this course, you should be able to:

• define IPC and its role in the context of preparedness, readiness and response;
• describe the current epidemiological COVID-19 situation, including case definitions and signs & symptoms;
• describe source control, administrative controls and environmental and engineering controls;
• describe the WHO-recommended IPC measures for health care facilities, including when dealing with suspect or confirmed COVID-19 cases;
• describe additional IPC measures to be taken to assist in general preparedness within a health care facility.

Course duration: Approximately 1 hour.

Certificates: A Confirmation of Participation is available to participants who complete 100% of the course material.

After completing this course, should you be interested in learning about how to correctly put on and remove personal protective equipment (PPE) in the context of COVID-19, please refer to the OpenWHO course: COVID-19: How to put on and remove personal protective equipment (PPE): https://openwho.org/courses/IPC-PPE-EN

Should you be interested in learning about how to correctly perform hand hygiene, please refer to the OpenWHO course: https://openwho.org/courses/IPC-HH-en

Course contents

• Module 1: IPC in Emergencies; preparedness, readiness and response:

  This module provides an overview of Infection Prevention and Control measures for preparedness and readiness.

• Module 2: Modes of transmission of SARS-CoV-2 and IPC strategies for health care:

  Module 2 provides an introduction to the COVID-19 virus.

• Module 3: Implementing transmission-based precautions for patients with COVID-19:

  This module reviews various precautions which should be taken to prepare for and respond to COVID-19.