Within the EU-WHO Solidarity for Health Initiative healthcare professionals from Azerbaijan attended an IPC study programme in Ankara

Within the European Union (EU)-funded Solidarity for Health Initiative, WHO Country Office in Azerbaijan continues to support the strengthening of Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) capacity in the country. As part of this joint EU-WHO project and the USAID-funded Azerbaijan Pandemic Response Activity (APR), a study programme for 19 hospital IPC committee members and healthcare professionals from Azerbaijan was organized in Ankara with the initiative of TABIB in collaboration with the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Türkiye.

The purpose of this programme in selected Turkish hospitals is to learn from best practices and strengthen the IPC programme in Azerbaijani facilities. The main objectives of the programme are to reflect upon transferable elements for Azerbaijan and build capacity for national and hospital-level decision-makers. Participants visited the Ministry of Health and received information about the IPC programme of Türkiye during the sessions led by Turkish specialists of the General Directorate of Public Health.

During visits to the Gulhane Training and Research Hospital, the Ankara Oncology Training and Research Hospital and the 29 May Public Hospital, the specialists from Azerbaijan got informed about the IPC programme of the hospitals, activities of the IPC committees, training and education activities, role of IPC nurses, medical waste management and as well as hand hygiene and got acquainted with the organisation of IPC in different departments of hospitals.

The Azerbaijani specialists got acquainted with the country experience of Türkiye on combating antimicrobial resistance and healthcare-associated infections, as well as hand hygiene multimodal strategy. After the visit, a meeting dedicated to the results of the IPC study programme was held, the participants were awarded certificates.

This technical collaboration between TABIB and the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Türkiye will contribute a great deal to strengthening the IPC programme in Azerbaijan.

The Solidarity for Health Initiative is an EU-funded project being implemented by WHO Office in Azerbaijan since April 2020 to support the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. The project aims to help build a sustainable response capacity to potential pandemics in the future. The Project is part of the continued support of the European Union and the World Health Organization to Azerbaijan.