Infection prevention and control measures include, among other measures: hand hygiene, personal protective equipment and waste management materials. The Protective equipment consists of garments placed to protect the health care workers or any other persons to get infected. These usually consist of standard precautions: gloves, mask, gown. If it is blood or airborne high infections, will include: Face protection, goggles and mask or faceshield, gloves, gown or coverall, head cover, rubber boots. The characteristics of these products will be described in the sections below. Link to other Infection Prevention and Control measures.

Due to the urgency of the Ebola outbreak and the WHO’s scale up of international response in west Africa, WHO is providing technical information on appropriate available essential medical devices which are indispensable for treatment centres, community-based units and other preventive activities, in affected and neighbouring countries.

Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) is most important in preventing transmission of the Ebola virus not only in treatment centres but also various activities, e.g. cleaning, waste management and safe burials, and community care related to the outbreak.

On the 31 October 2014, WHO updated the Rapid Advice Guideline for Personal Protective Equipment for Ebola response and the technical specifications of the referred equipments, which can be downloaded below:

ObjectivesTo provide a review and summary of current evidence on protective effects of PPE and applicable standards, and to identify the knowledge gaps...

WHO compendium of innovative health technologies for low – resource settings 2016-2017 provides information about novel advancements that offer a...

Filoviruses (Ebola and Marburg) are highly contagious pathogens, which cause severe and often fatal illness in humans. Health workers are at increased risk...

This is a continuation of the compendium series of innovative medical devices, assistive devices and eHealth solutions, inclusive of 2011-2014. The objective...

This protocol provides information on the safe management of dead bodies and burial of patients who died from suspected or confirmed Ebola or Marburg virus...

In order to understand personal protective equipment challenges and to inform innovation related to PPE, if you are a healthcare worker, logistician or procurement specialist with experience in PPE and EVD relief efforts, we kindly request your participation in an online survey found below. Collected responses will serve as a baseline assessment of the global use of PPE for healthcare service delivery in the context of Ebola virus disease (EVD). Please share this link with colleagues who have experience with PPE and EVD relief efforts. Responses will remain anonymous but you may choose to provide contact information should the results from this survey be of interest to you.