Bibliographic information
GuidelineWHO guideline on public health and social measures for mitigating the risk and impact of epidemic and pandemic influenza
Year of Publication2026
Issuing InstitutionWorld Health Organization
Recommendation
New
WHO recommends voluntary home isolation of symptomatic and/or infected individuals in every circumstance to reduce the transmission of influenza viruses during influenza epidemics and pandemics.
Recommended in favor
Strong
Certainty of evidence
Very low
Notes and Remarks
- Addressing the practical needs of isolated individuals is crucial, especially for those more vulnerable, such as people living alone or the elderly. Ensuring access to necessary medical supplies and adequate food is essential. When healthy individuals live with someone who is isolating, the implementing of personal protection measures to help reduce the risk of household transmission is very important.
- The duration of isolation should be guided by the duration of infectiousness of the disease. Early studies on the course of infectiousness over time can thus inform this decision.
- Focusing on the initial days when infectiousness is highest and medical attention may be most needed is essential. Monitoring symptoms during this period will be crucial.
- During continued community transmission, mandatory isolation could become increasingly challenging to enforce and may have limited measurable impact on overall mitigation, whereas voluntary self-isolation should always be part of the strategy.
- Isolation has significant social and economic consequences for affected individuals. Governments and communities should consider these impacts and aim to mitigate them through the implementation of social security policies.
- For individuals who find it difficult to home isolate, facility-based isolation can be considered, provided that appropriate care and support is provided in such facilities.
- In the absence of widely available rapid diagnostic tests for a newly emerged influenza virus, isolation recommendations may need to rely on symptomatic illness rather than laboratory results.