Moving the Need on Infection Prevention. International Infection Prevention Week: October 13-19, 2024.

International Infection Prevention Week (IIPW): October 13–19, 2024

This year’s theme, “Moving the Needle on Infection Prevention,” is all about advancing infection prevention efforts and making infection prevention fun and engaging for your team.

APIC provides activities like the Build a Bug Contest or daily infection prevention Wordles. These interactive events are designed to spark creativity, teamwork, and excitement while reinforcing the best practices that keep everyone safe.

Ways to Use This Resource:

Build a Bug Contest: Challenge your team to create their own superbug and showcase how they would stop it!

Daily Wordle: Add some brain-teasing fun to your day with infection prevention-themed Wordles.

Infection Prevention Challenges: Bring out the competitive spirit with trivia, scavenger hunts, and more.

Target Audience: Essential to Foundational IPC education level

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.

Disruption in Production of IV Fluid Due to Impacts from Hurricane Helene

VDH

Any Practice Setting

Emergency Preparedness & Operations

Addresses the disruption in production of IV solutions as a result of Hurricane Helene on the Baxter International Inc. North Cove manufacturing facility in Marion, North Carolina. Includes updates, recommendations to mitigate the impact, and VDH’s response to the situation.

Pneumococcal Vaccine Recommendations

CDC

Acute Care Hospital

Adult Day Care

Ambulatory (Outpatient) Care

Department of Health

Home Health

Mobile Clinic

Nursing Home / Skilled Nursing Facility (SNF)

Vaccination

The recommended age for receiving the pneumococcal vaccination was lowered from 65 to 50 years to give more adults the opportunity to protect themselves from pneumococcal disease at the age when risk of infection substantially increases.

Marburg Virus Disease Update

VDH

Any Practice Setting

Emergency Preparedness & Operations

Update on the situation summary and CDC recommendations regarding the Marburg Outbreak in the Republic of Rwanda.

Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza and Pharmacist Influenza Testing

VDH

Any Practice Setting

Emergency Preparedness & Operations

Information on VDH’s continued monitoring of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) A (H5N1) in poultry and dairy cattle that has resulted in a small number of human infections in parts of the U.S.

Marburg Virus Disease Outbreak in the Republic of Rwanda

CDC

Any Practice Setting

Emergency Preparedness & Operations

Information for clinicians and health departments about the Republic of Rwanda’s confirmed outbreak of Marburg virus disease (MVD). The Health Advisory summarizes recommendations for public health departments and clinicians in the U.S. on case identification and testing and clinical laboratory biosafety considerations.

VCU Health Tappahannock Hospital

This month we are highlighting the great infection prevention work at VCU Health Tappahannock Hospital. They haven’t had a reportable catheter-associated urinary tract infection (CAUTI), central line-associated bloodstream infection, ventilator-associated event, MRSA bacteremia laboratory-identified event, or surgical site infection following a colon procedure in 2023 or 2024 so far! They are a small facility (only 37 beds), so even one healthcare-associated infection causes their standardized infection ratio to be high.

According to Director of Infection Prevention, Donna Tignor, and Director of Quality, Kate Bradshaw, they are most proud of their work on CAUTI reduction. VCU Health Tappahannock Hospital has the standard CAUTI prevention practices in place, such as a CAUTI prevention bundle and discussing necessity every day in interdisciplinary rounds. However, the initiative with the biggest impact was the facility’s effort to empower nurses to follow the nurse-driven protocol for urinary catheter removal. Despite having a nurse-driven protocol in place, nurses were still calling physicians for permission to remove the catheter. Infection prevention and nursing leaders rounded with staff to share their support for the nurse-driven protocol and empower nursing staff to follow the protocol. These leaders made a commitment to back up the nursing teams if the decision to remove a catheter under the protocol was called into question. Infection prevention at Tappahannock also performs in-person onboarding with new physicians so they can review the nurse-driven catheter removal protocol with them. This ensures that physicians are aware of the facility’s protocols and that this is a part of their culture. Great work VCU Health Tappahannock Hospital!