Category: Advancing Global Healthcare Safety

Strengthening Infection Prevention and Control in Sierra Leone and Ethiopia

One person helps another to put on personal protective equipment

Experts are working together to bring down rates of healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) in low- and middle-income countries, which can be at least 3 times higher than those in high-income countries. Healthcare professionals trained in infection prevention and control (IPC) are critical to reduce HAIs and improve patient and healthcare worker safety, but many healthcare facilities Read More >

Posted on by Lindsay Tompkins and Karen Wu5 CommentsTags

Combating Antimicrobial Resistance in Argentina: Legislation for the Future

Pictured left to right: Analía Mykietiuk (President of the Argentine Society of Infectious Diseases , Carla Vizzotti (Minister of Health), Rachel Smith (CDC), and Laura Barcelona (Director, CoNaCRA)

Argentina’s Ministry of Health is implementing the first legislation in South America using a One Health framework to combat antimicrobial resistance (AR), representing Argentina’s commitment to combating AR. Argentina is also participating in CDC’s Global Action in Healthcare Network (GAIHN) to strengthen the capacity to detect, prevent, and respond to AR. History and Development of Read More >

Posted on by Guest Authors: Laura Barcelona, Lauren Dempsey, Rachel SmithTags , ,

Ethiopian Hospitals Use Infection Prevention and Control Practices to Combat Antimicrobial Resistance

Two hospitals in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, are demonstrating that even when access to resources is limited, commitment to infection prevention and control (IPC) practices makes combating antimicrobial resistance (AR) possible. Antimicrobial-resistant bacteria can cause severe, hard-to-treat infections. They were associated with almost 5 million deaths worldwide in 2019. IPC practices such as proper hand hygiene, Read More >

Posted on by Guest authors: Sophie Jones and Elizabeth Soda4 CommentsTags , , , , ,

New Africa CDC Legal Framework Helps Promote Infection Prevention and Control

Jay K. Varma, MD & Yewande Alimi, DVM, MPH

The authors of this post co-led the development of the Africa CDC Legal Framework for Infection Prevention and Control.  When we first began developing a strategy for Africa CDC to combat antimicrobial-resistant infections in Africa, we kept hearing the same message from people working in hospitals or in governments: no one gives us the authority Read More >

Posted on by Jay K. Varma, MD and Yewande Alimi, DVM, MPHTags

Implementing Infection Prevention and Control Measures Reduces CRE in Vietnam

Vietnam has adapted established infection prevention and control (IPC) measures for limited-resource settings to help stop the spread of carbapenem-resistant Enterobacterales (CRE), identified as an urgent antimicrobial resistance (AR) threat in CDC’s 2019 AR Threats Report. A CDC-supported initiative at The University Medical Center Ho Chi Minh City (UMC) in Vietnam that used IPC quality Read More >

Posted on by Amber Vasquez, MD, MPH2 CommentsTags , ,