APSIC guidelines for environmental hygiene: surface cleaning air and water quality in hospitals: 2025 update

Abstract

Objective: To describe the revised APSIC Environmental Hygiene Guidelines for prevention of healthcare-associated infections inclusive of surface cleaning, air and water quality. Design: The revised guideline was developed by Infection Prevention and Control key opinion leaders from Asia Pacific. Setting: This guideline emphasizes on practical implementation of environmental hygiene for prevention of healthcare-associated infections inclusive of surface cleaning, air and water quality relevant to Asia Pacific settings. Patients or participants: Any patients hospitalized in healthcare setting. Interventions: Literature search was done for recent international updates in environmental hygiene inclusive of surface cleaning, air and water quality. Recommendations were evaluated for practical and feasible recommendation in low-resourced settings in Asia Pacific. Results: The key recommendations are listed in the best practices for cleaning patient care areas. Additional measures are recommended to improve the air and water quality in healthcare settings. Conclusions: Implementation of environmental hygiene in Asia Pacific should take into consideration of the air and water quality in addition of surface cleaning. Measures to assess the cleanliness should be performed using conventional visual assessment, environmental cleaning and disinfection checklist, auditing, and additional measures (e.g., environmental culture or fluorescence).