Hospital Infection Control & Prevention – August 1, 2013
August 1, 2013
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APIC at 40: Full public awareness of IP role critical to future of infection prevention
The future of infection prevention hinges in large part on greater public awareness of the vital role IPs play in protecting patients throughout the health care system, an acknowledgement that is needed to preserve and expand program resources, said Patti Grant, RN, BSN, MS, CIC, president of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC). -
Silence kills if no one is willing to speak up
Checklists and clear protocols for clinical care have been highly successful in infection prevention and other fields, but can be easily undercut by a simple non-action: silence. -
A journey through the past leads to a call for action
Though the value of infection prevention programs goes without saying today, there was a time when the field was first forming that there was little to no evidence that the basic tenets of infection prevention were essential to protect hospital patients and prevent what were then called nosocomial infections. -
Tipping point: HIV begins new era of emerging infections
The broad misconception that infectious diseases were fading as a medical concern with the development of antibiotics and vaccines was dashed in dramatic and tragic fashion in 1981 when the first cases of a strange new illness were reported among groups of gay men in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco. The AIDS epidemic had begun.