Health-care settings include hospitals, health centers, clinics, dental surgeries, and general practitioner facilities. They provide an opportunity to educate visitors and the general population about minimizing disease transmission by providing targeted messages and a “model” safe environment. Messages can also contribute to a safe home environment, which is especially relevant to the trend towards increased home-based care in both developing and developed countries. The development and implementation of national policies, guidelines on safe practices, training and promotion of effective messages in a context of healthy medical facilities will decrease the number of infections associated with health-care settings. The international policy environment increasingly reflects the problem of health-care-associated infections. The eight United Nations (UN) Millennium Development Goals1 include goals on maternal health (there are an estimated 529 000 maternal deaths per year), as well as other goals relating to major diseases and infant mortality.
