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.

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!