4th edition
The WHO Laboratory Biosafety Manual (LBM) has been in broad use at all levels of clinical and public health laboratories, and other biomedical sectors globally, serving as a de facto global standard that presents best practices and sets trends in biosafety.
LBM encouraged countries t...o accept and implement basic concepts in biological safety and to develop national codes of practice for the safe handling of biological agents in laboratories within their geographical borders.
This fourth edition of the manual builds on the risk assessment framework introduced in the third edition. A thorough, evidence-based and transparent assessment of the risks allows safety measures to be balanced with the actual risk of working with biological agents on a case-by-case basis.
This novel evidence- and risk-based approach will allow optimised resource use and sustainable laboratory biosafety and biosecurity policies and practices that are relevant to their individual circumstances and priorities, enabling equitable access to clinical and public health laboratory tests and biomedical research opportunities without compromising safety.
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The design of anaesthesia equipment for use in hospitals in the developing world must take intoaccount the local conditions, particularly whether reliable supplies of compressed oxygen andelectricity are available. Designs should ensure that maintenance is feasible locally. Internationalstandards sh...ould encourage the design of suitable equipment to ensure safe anaesthesia for patientsworldwide
Anaesthesia, 2007,62(Suppl. 1), pages 54–60
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A guide for Regional Workshop and Hospital Technicians
Countries can use this tool to collect in-depth facility inventories of biomedical equipment re-allocation, procurement and planning for COVID-19 case management. The survey assesses quantified availability and the causes for non-functioning of different sources of oxygen delivery and supply systems... to the patient in order to determine priorities and re-allocation requirements in accordance with needs.
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This tool is designed to help governments, partners, and other stakeholders to estimate potential requirements for essential supplies to respond to the current pandemic of COVID-19. Although it gives users with an estimation of the number of cases, this calculator is not an epidemiological calculato...r.
The focus of this tool is to forecast essential supplies: it includes estimation of personal protective equipment, diagnostic equipment, biomedical equipment for case management, essential drugs for supportive care, and consumable medical supplies.
The COVID-19 ESFT tool is intended to be complimentary to the Health Workforce tools (Adaptt and the Workforce Estimator). Both tools use the same base clinical attack rate ranges and classify health workforce using ILO ISCO codes, but their outputs are intentionally different due to their primary focus.
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The WHO COVID-19 Essential Supplies Forecasting Tool (COVID-19-ESFT) is meant to help countries forecast essential supplies for their COVID-19 response including personal protective equipment (e.g., masks and gloves), biomedical equipment for case management (e.g., ventilators and oxygen concentrato...rs), diagnostic reagents and equipment, essential drugs for supportive care, and consumable medical supplies.
The tool is best suited for estimating essential supply needs over a short time period (12 weeks or fewer) but can be used for longer.
COVID-19-ESFT does not quantify or account for resources already available locally or those pending delivery. When using the ESFT to inform procurement, we recommend factoring in resources already available locally and only including the additional resources required in the forecast.
This tool is updated regularly so users should monitor the website for the latest release version.
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The document "Priority medical devices list for the COVID-19 response and associated technical specifications" complements this guideline.
This document provides interim guidance on the quality, performance characteristics and related standards of personal protective equipment (PPE) to be used i...n the context of COVID-19. This includes WHO Priority Medical Devices, specifically: surgical masks, non-surgical masks, gloves, googles, face shields, gowns and N95 masks. It is intended for procurement agencies, occupational health departments, infection prevention and control departments or focal points, health facility administrators, biomedical and materials engineering, PPE manufacturers and public health authorities at both national and facility levels.
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MedPPE emphasizes the role and timing of health workers jobs and offers specific information to prevent the spread of COVID-19. The guidelines are aimed at all personnel working in health facilities, including security guards, administrative and cleaning personnel, transfer assistants, nurses, biome...dical and imaging technicians, surgeons, and physicians, among others.
MedPPE provides guidance for the use of PPE according to workers’ function, the level of care they provide, and the multiple environments of primary health care and hospitals. The tool also clarifies the type of PPE needed when performing aerosol-generating procedures and other activities related to the care of patients infected or suspected of being infected with COVID-19.
However, use of PPE alone is not enough to protect against COVID-19. Hand hygiene and proper PPE dressing and undressing procedures must also be followed, along with the proper disposal and management of waste.
MedPPE is available in Spanish, English, Portuguese and French for iOS and Android devices.
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The document "Priority medical devices list for the COVID-19 response and associated technical specifications" complements this guideline.
This document provides interim guidance on the quality, performance characteristics and related standards of personal protective equipment (PPE) to be used i...n the context of COVID-19. This includes WHO Priority Medical Devices, specifically: surgical masks, non-surgical masks, gloves, googles, face shields, gowns and N95 masks. It is intended for procurement agencies, occupational health departments, infection prevention and control departments or focal points, health facility administrators, biomedical and materials engineering, PPE manufacturers and public health authorities at both national and facility levels.
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El documento "Lista de productos sanitarios prioritarios para la respuesta a COVID-19 y especificaciones técnicas asociadas" complementa esta directriz.
Este documento proporciona una orientación provisional sobre la calidad, las características de rendimiento y las normas conexas de los equi...pos de protección personal (EPP) que se utilizarán en el contexto de COVID-19. Esto incluye los productos sanitarios prioritarios de la OMS, concretamente: mascarillas quirúrgicas, mascarillas no quirúrgicas, guantes, gafas, protectores faciales, batas y mascarillas N95. Está dirigido a los organismos de adquisición, los departamentos de salud laboral, los departamentos o puntos focales de prevención y control de infecciones, los administradores de los centros de salud, la ingeniería biomédica y de materiales, los fabricantes de EPI y las autoridades de salud pública, tanto a nivel nacional como de los centros.
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Ce document fournit des orientations provisoires sur la qualité, les caractéristiques de performance et les normes connexes des équipements de protection individuelle (EPI) à utiliser dans le contexte de COVID-19. Il s'agit notamment des dispositifs médicaux prioritaires de l'OMS, à savoir : l...es masques chirurgicaux, les masques non chirurgicaux, les gants, les lunettes de protection, les écrans faciaux, les blouses et les masques N95. Il est destiné aux organismes d'approvisionnement, aux services de santé au travail, aux services ou points focaux de prévention et de contrôle des infections, aux administrateurs d'établissements de santé, aux ingénieurs biomédicaux et des matériaux, aux fabricants d'EPI et aux autorités de santé publique, tant au niveau national qu'au niveau des établissements.
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The WHO COVID-19 Essential Supplies Forecasting Tool (ESFT) assists governments, partners, and other stakeholders to forecast the necessary volume of personal protective equipment, diagnostic equipment, consumable medical supplies, biomedical equipment for case management, and essential drugs for su...pportive care and treatment of COVID-19. The tool provides the user with a choice among several epidemiological methods for forecasting COVID-19 cases, including an integration with Imperial College’s Susceptible-Exposed-Infectious-Removed (SEIR) model.
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This collection of posters are intended for health care workers, biomedical engineers and staff of health facilities in charge of caring, cleaning, decontaminating and sterilizing respiratory medical equipment in hospitals and health facilities. They include checklists to ensure the optimal infectio...n prevention and control during their use and between patients.
They describe the procedures to follow (Checklists) to clean, decontaminate and sterilize different respiratory devices:
Oxygen concentrators,
Non-invasive mechanical ventilation equipment: High flow nasal cannula, BiPAP/CPAP,
Mechanical ventilators,
Pulse oximeters and monitors.
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This collection of posters are intended for health care workers, biomedical engineers and staff of health facilities in charge of caring, cleaning, decontaminating and sterilizing respiratory medical equipment in hospitals and health facilities. They include checklists to ensure the optimal infectio...n prevention and control during their use and between patients.
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This collection of posters are intended for health care workers, biomedical engineers and staff of health facilities in charge of caring, cleaning, decontaminating and sterilizing respiratory medical equipment in hospitals and health facilities. They include checklists to ensure the optimal infectio...n prevention and control during their use and between patients.
They describe the procedures to follow (Checklists) to clean, decontaminate and sterilize different respiratory devices:
Oxygen concentrators,
Non-invasive mechanical ventilation equipment: High flow nasal cannula, BiPAP/CPAP,
Mechanical ventilators,
Pulse oximeters and monitors.
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All health workers require knowledge and skills to care for patients safely and protect themselves from undue harm. This course was developed due to the enormous emphasis placed on need for safe provision of oxygen to patients with COVID-19, but can be used for conditions beyond COVID-19. This cours...e teaches how to choose the right equipment for your facility, how to set up new respiratory equipment, how to clinically use respiratory equipment, how to maintain equipment, including troubleshooting, repairs and infection prevention and control, and how to decommission equipment.
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Medical devices are used for the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of illness and diseases and for rehabilitation. WHO developed guidance on medical device donation in 2011, which has been now reviewed, with new evidence, new references on considerations for medical device solicitation and provisi...on, risks associated with inappropriate donations, the responsibilities of donors and recipient, and the steps they should follow before, during and after a donation. It includes three sections: description of major problems that may be faced during the donation process, listing of best practices for donors and recipients and addressing situations requiring special attention. It also has three annexes for further reading: the criteria for the acceptability of a donation, literature review on donations of medical devices between 2010 and 2023 and a flyer. This document is intended to improve the quality of medical devices donations, including medical equipment, single-use medical devices and in-vitro diagnostics, to provide maximum benefit to all stakeholders. The considerations can be used to develop institutional or national policies and regulations for medical devices donations. This document is intended for use by any organization, expert or practitioner involved in the donation, procurement, management of medical devices, including health workers, biomedical engineers, health managers, policymakers, donors, nongovernmental organizations and academic institutions.
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