Joint ILO/WHO Tripartite Working Party of Experts on Occupational Health and HIV/AIDS for Health Services Workers

From 06 to 09 July 2010 the ILO and WHO hosted a Joint ILO/WHO Tripartite Working Party of Experts on Occupational Health and HIV/AIDS for Health Services Workers.

The purpose of this meeting among experts was to conduct a tripartite review and validate through the tripartite process the following documents:
- The joint WHO-ILO policy guidelines for health worker access to HIV and TB prevention, treatment, and care services; and

- A Global Framework for national occupational health programmes for health workers.

Additionally, experts provided technical input in order to further develop HealthWISE, a tool that is meant to improve working conditions, health, and safety for health workers.

The meeting brought together experts in the fields of occupational health and safety, human resources for health, HIV/AIDS and TB, as well as the ILO tripartite process constituents representing workers, employers, and governments.

Through this initial meeting of the Joint Tripartite Experts both the ILO and WHO have gained insight into the scope and severity of the challenges that health workers face. The WHO and ILO are committed to improving their work lives by improving both working conditions and occupational health services including HIV and TB.