Image of microbes with word bubbles around it. Word bubbles include: food supply, communities, across the world, water and soil, and healthcare facilties.

Health Equity and Antimicrobial Resistance Resources from CDC

CDC provided a toolkit of resources that incorporate health equity science into antibiotic stewardship program research.

Ways to Share this Resource 

Perfect for sharing during U.S. Antibiotic Awareness Week (November 18-24).
Resources for different audiences to help you match the right materials for patients, residents, family, administrators, prescribers, and healthcare workers.

Target Audience: Foundational to Intermediate IPC education levels

Guidance & Regulation Updates

VIPTA members track guidance and regulation resources to share source documents that guide infection prevention and control practices for public health staff and clinical and non-clinical healthcare personnel.

The date of the regulation or guidance update is included in each post. Please check linked content to be sure it is the most up to date and recommended practice.

Facility Guidelines Institute (FGI) Facility Code, 2026 Edition (draft)

Any Practice Setting

Construction

Documents for the design and construction of hospitals, outpatient facilities, and residential health, care, and support facilities are open for public comment until September 30, 2024 Interested professionals in the healthcare and long-term care industries (including infection preventionists) are encouraged to review and contribute comments on the draft documents

CDC: Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza A(H5N1) Virus in Animals: Interim Recommendations for Prevention, Monitoring, and Public Health Investigations (6/20/2024)

CDC

Acute Care Hospital

Ambulatory (Outpatient) Care

Department of Health

Emergency Preparedness & Operations

Guidance for preventing exposures to highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) A(H5N1) viruses and infection prevention and control measures, including the use of personal protective equipment, testing, antiviral treatment, patient investigations, monitoring of exposed persons, and antiviral chemoprophylaxis of exposed persons.

H5N1 Bird Flu: Current Situation Summary (5/24/2024)

CDC

Any Practice Setting

Emergency Preparedness & Operations

Surveillance

H5 bird flu is widespread in wild birds worldwide and is causing outbreaks in poultry and U.S. dairy cows with two cases of H5 in U.S. dairy workers. While the current public health risk is low, CDC is watching the situation carefully and working with states to monitor people with animal exposures. CDC is using its flu surveillance systems to monitor for H5N1 activity in people.

Updates on Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (5/20/2024)

FDA

Department of Health

Surveillance

FDA is providing routine updates on avian influenza and the ongoing work to ensure continued effectiveness of the federal-state milk safety system.

Health Advisory: Meningococcal Disease Cases Linked to Travel to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA): Ensure Pilgrims are Current on Meningococcal Vaccination (5/20/2024)

CDC

Acute Care Hospital

Ambulatory (Outpatient) Care

Department of Health

Mobile Clinic

Pediatric / NICU

Emergency Preparedness & Operations

Surveillance

Vaccination

Since April 2024, 12 cases of meningococcal disease linked to Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) travel for Umrah have been reported to national public health agencies in multiple countries including the United States (U.S.). Healthcare providers in the U.S. should: Recommend quadrivalent meningococcal conjugate vaccination for people considering travel to KSA to perform Hajj or Umah (pilgrims) in addition to routine meningococcal vaccination for adolescents and other people at increased meningococcal disease risk. Maintain a heightened index of suspicion for meningococcal disease. Immediately notify the local health department about suspected or confirmed cases of meningococcal disease. Consider postexposure prophylaxis.

Carilion Clinic

The Carilion Clinic Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) team is engaging patients in the outpatient hand hygiene program. Infection prevention is a team effort, and everyone, including patients, has a role to play. Hand hygiene is the most crucial strategy for preventing infections, and through this program, Carilion is committed to providing the best patient care.

The Patient Feedback Monitoring Program invites patients at ambulatory sites to provide feedback on their providers’ hand hygiene. During their visits, patients receive feedback cards where they can indicate “yes,” “no,” or “unsure” if their provider performed hand hygiene before initiating physical contact. These data are compiled into a Tableau dashboard and shared with sites in real-time to evaluate compliance. The goal of this program is to highlight the importance of hand hygiene in the clinical setting and empower patients to be allies and advocates for infection prevention.

Since the program’s creation, the Carilion Clinic IPC team has been actively engaging ambulatory clinics and promoting the initiative, setting a goal for each clinic to submit 40 observations per month. Collaborating with the marketing and technology departments, the team ensured that the observation tools are accessible. The total number of outpatient hand hygiene observations increased from 12,311 in 2022 to 17,033 in 2023. As of July 2024, outpatient clinics have already collected 11,259 observations, and the year is only half over!