Consolidated Guidelines

2.9.1 Establish and provide adequate financial resources for treatment, care and support programmes to prevent the occupational or non- occupational transmission of HIV and TB among health workers.

As discussed above, it is now well established that the health workforce is at higher risk than the general population of exposure to infectious diseases generally. While there is no dispute as to the importance of occupational transmission of TB, as discussed as well by Wheeler (2009), there is less consensus regarding the importance of occupational HIV, albeit at least 4-5% of HIV is thought to have been acquired at work. Nonetheless there are few studies that explore the allocation of resources and programmes in this regard.

2.7.1 Disseminate policies in the form of guidelines and codes of practices for application at the level of health facilities, and ensure provision of budgets for the training and material inputs to make them operational.

Even when there is a strong consensus on policies and codes of practices related to HIV and TB in health workers, actual Guidelines and Codes of Practice in this regard are not widely available or accessible, nor are training materials in this area, and are not being widely implemented.

Budgets for training and material inputs are generally lacking, and require attention.

2.4.1 Develop or strengthen existing infection control programmes, especially with respect to TB infection control, and ensure integration with other workplace health and safety programmes.

The evidence for this statement was reviewed in-depth for the recent WHO Policy on TB Infection Control in Health-Care Facilities, Congregate Settings and Households and on infection control generally. and therefore will not be elaborated upon extensively here. These WHO infection control guidelines must be observed in their own right as well as being an essential component of improving health worker access to prevention, treatment, care and support for HIV and TB.