The Department of Service Delivery and Safety of the World Health Organization (WHO) gratefully acknowledges the contributions that many individuals and organizations have made to the development of these guidelines.
Overall coordination and writing of the guidelines
Benedetta Allegranzi (Department of Service Delivery and Safety, WHO) coordinated and led the development and writing of the guidelines. Peter Bischoff (Charité-University Medicine Berlin, Germany), Zeynep Kubilay (Department of Service Delivery and Safety, WHO), Stijn de Jonge (University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands) and Bassim Zayed (Department of Service Delivery and Safety, WHO) helped coordinate the development and writing of the guidelines. Mohamed Abbas (University of Geneva Hospitals, Switzerland), Nizam Damani (Southern Health and Social Service Trust, UK) and Joost Hopman (Radboud University Medical Center Nijmegen, the Netherlands) also contributed to the writing of specific chapters. Rosemary Sudan provided professional editing assistance. Thomas Allen and Jose Luis Garnica Carreno (Library and Information Networks for Knowledge, WHO) provided assistance with the systematic reviews searches. Susan Norris (Guidelines Review Committee Secretariat, WHO) provided guidance on the document development.
WHO Guideline Steering Group
The following WHO staff formed the Guideline Steering Group:
Department of Service Delivery and Safety: Benedetta Allegranzi, Edward Kelley, Walter Johnson, Bassim Zayed.
Department of Pandemic and Epidemic Diseases: Sergey Eremin.
Regional Office for the Americas: Valeska Stempliuk.
WHO Guidelines Development Group
The chair of the Guidelines Development Group was Joseph S Solomkin (University of Cincinnati College of Medicine/OASIS Global, USA).
The GRADE methodologist of the WHO Guidelines Development Group was Matthias Egger (University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland).
The following experts served on the Guidelines Development Group:
Hanan H Balkhy (King Saud Bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia); Javier F Belda (University of Valencia, Spain); Sean Berenholtz (Johns Hopkins Medicine, Baltimore, USA); Marja A Boermeester (University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands); Nizam Damani (Craigavon Area Hospital, UK); E Patchen Dellinger (University of Washington, USA); Mazen S Ferwana (King Saud Bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia); Petra Gastmeier (Institute of Hygiene and Environmental Medicine, Charité-University Medicine Berlin, Germany); Robert Greif (Hospital University of Bern, Switzerland); Asad Latif (Johns Hopkins Medicine, Baltimore, USA); Xavier Guirao (Parc Taulí Hospital Universitari, Spain); Nordiah Jalil (University Kebangsaan Malaysia Medical Centre, Malaysia); Robinah Kaitiritimba (Uganda National Health Consumers’ Organization, Uganda); Fauzia Khan (Aga Khan University Karachi, Pakistan); Janet Martin (School of Medecine/Dentistry Western University, Ontario, Canada); Regina Kamoga (Community Health and Information Network, Uganda); Claire Kilpatrick (KS Healthcare Consulting (S3 Global, UK); Shaheen Mehtar (Stellenbosch University and Infection Control Africa Network, Republic of South Africa); Jannicke Mellin-Olsen (World Federation of Societies of Anesthesiologists, London, UK); Babacar Ndoye (Infection Control Africa Network Board, Senegal); Peter Nthumba (AIC Kijabe Hospital, Kenya); Bisola Onajin Obembe (University of Port Harcourt, Nigeria); Akca Ozan (University of Louisville, USA); Leonardo Pagani (Bolzano Central Hospital, Italy); Didier Pittet (University of Geneva Hospitals, Switzerland); Jianan Ren (Nanjing University, People’s Republic of China); Joseph S Solomkin (University of Cincinnati, USA); Akeau Unahalekhaka (Chiang Mai University, Thailand); Andreas F Widmer (Basel University, Switzerland).
Members of the Systematic Reviews Expert Group
The following experts served on the Systematic Reviews Expert Group (names of team leaders are underlined):
Jasper J Atema, Marja A Boermeester, Quirne Boldingh, Sarah Gans, Stijn de Jonge, Fleur de Vries, and Elon D Wallert (University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands); Stacey M Gomes (OASIS Global, USA); and Joseph S. Solomkin (University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, USA); Jan Kluytmans and Miranda van Rijen (Amphia Hospital Breda, the Netherlands); Jianan Ren and Yiuwen Wu (Nanjing University, People’s Republic of China); Xavier Guirao and Sandra Pequeno (Parc Taulí Hospital Universitari, and Centre Cochrane Iberoamericà de l’Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau, Spain); Petra Gastmeier and Peter Bischoff (Institute of Hygiene and Environmental Medicine, Charité-University Medicine Berlin, Germany); Didier Pittet and Caroline Landelle (University of Geneva Hospitals, Switzerland); Nizam Damani (Southern Health and Social Service Trust, UK); Benedetta Allegranzi, Zeynep Kubilay and Bassim Zayed (Department of Service Delivery and Safety, WHO); Yoon K Loke, K. Mattishent, A. Peel, A. Sinha, M. Thavarajah (University of East Anglia Norwich, UK).
External Peer Review Group
The following experts served as external peer reviewers of the draft guideline documents:
Emmanuel Ameh (Ahmadu Bello University, Nigeria); Kamal Itani (VA Boston Healthcare System & Boston University School of Medicine, USA); Fernando Otaíza (Infection Prevention and Control Unit, Ministry of Health, Chile); Val Robertson (University of Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe); Ilker Uçkay (University of Geneva Hospitals, Switzerland).
Acknowledgement of financial support
Funding for the development of these guidelines was mainly provided by WHO, partly funded by the Fleming Fund of the UK Government. However, the views expressed do not necessarily reflect the official policies of the UK Government. The Swiss Government and OASIS Global (USA) also provided essential financial support. The systematic reviews performed by the external expert teams were conducted free of charge as in-kind contributions by the following institutions: Amphia Hospital Breda (the Netherlands); University of Amsterdam (the Netherlands); University of Berlin (Germany); University of Cincinnati (USA); Corporacifi Sanitaria del Parc Taulí, University Hospital (Spain); Jinling Hospital and the Medical School of Nanjing University (People’s Republic of China).
Photograph contributions
Courtesy of Didier Pittet, MD (University of Geneva Hospitals, Switzerland); courtesy of Juliana Cusack (Patrick Okao, MD, Surgeon at Butaro District Hospital, Rwanda and James Cusack, MD, Visiting Surgeon from Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA).
