Dennis Cardo, MD
Director of Medical Quality Promotion Division
National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases
at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
The past two years have been an extraordinary time for the U.S. health care system and public health. During the COVID-19 pandemic, many healthcare facilities and healthcare workers face incredible obstacles, including increased patient cases, staffing challenges and other operational changes. As the pandemic unfolded, one thing became clear: The pandemic has re-emphasized the critical importance of infection prevention and control in healthcare settings to keep patients and healthcare workers safe.
Public health and healthcare systems need tools to better respond to the next threat. In many ways, the next threat has arrived. During the COVID-19 pandemic, we’ve seen a surge in antimicrobial-resistant infections (AR) and healthcare-associated infections (HAI), especially in hospitals, and pathogens that we’ve been successful in reducing through our previous prevention efforts.
As huge gaps in the preparedness pipeline need to be filled to stop the spread of infection, CDC is leveraging decades of investment, partnerships and knowledge to improve infection prevention and control activities in the U.S. public health and healthcare system.
pass American Rescue ProgramCDC is already investing in the infrastructure needed to strengthen and sustain the response to COVID-19, learn from those serving on the front lines of public health and healthcare, and ensure we are prepared for the next pandemic and the AR/HAI threat Prepare.
- Improve public health capacity– CDC is working with public health authorities to build and maintain a strong public health workforce with expertise in the prevention and control of infectious diseases in health care settings; identify, address, and monitor health care-related disparities; and improve investigative care Capacity for health care-associated infection outbreaks.
- Increase your chances of getting a test—CDC is passing Antimicrobial Resistance Laboratory Network Better identification of emerging threats, such as antimicrobial pathogens Carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) and candida ear.
- Addressing Health Equity Issues— CDC is working with state health departments to identify, address, and monitor health disparities and to assess data sources for equity-related variables to identify disparities in antibiotic prescribing (socioeconomic, insurance status, social vulnerability index, race /ethnicity, geography) and incorporate these data into monitoring and analysis at the patient, facility and community levels.
- Tailoring public health interventions for high-risk settings— CDC is funding the Health Department’s Nursing Home and Long-Term Care Strike Team to help skilled nursing facilities, nursing homes, and other long-term care facilities respond to infectious diseases, including known or suspected outbreaks of COVID-19.
- More actionable data for public health— CDC is investing in increasing the use and National Healthcare Safety Network And support state analysis of antibiotic use data to improve antibiotic prescribing across the community.
- Innovative public health prevention tools— CDC will continue to work with public health, healthcare, academia, and other sectors to develop new prevention interventions and infection prevention and control tools, including training resources, data applications, and other technical assistance tools.
- Design and implement effective infection prevention and control training-pass Project line, CDC is funding health departments to train and educate frontline healthcare workers through a unique collaboration of healthcare, public health, and academic partners. Regardless of previous training or educational background of healthcare workers, training through Project Firstline will provide them with the infection control principles and protocols necessary to protect themselves, their facilities, their families and their communities from infectious diseases threaten.
Through these collaborations and investments, CDC will continue to build a resilient public health and healthcare system in the United States, improving infection prevention and control capabilities. We’ve seen that the best preparation we can do is to prevent infection in the first place. We have many tools to do this work, and we are committed to continuing to build a resilient system that works with all of our public health partners to stop these threats.
