Key points
- CDC's International Infection Control Branch (IICB) protects patients and healthcare personnel globally, particularly in low- and middle-income countries.
- Our expertise, scientific evidence and proven implementation strategies support sustainable solutions to infectious disease threats associated with healthcare delivery.
- These threats include healthcare-associated infections (HAIs), antimicrobial resistance (AR) and infectious disease outbreaks such as COVID-19, Ebola virus disease and mpox.
Why it matters
In our increasingly globalized world, infectious diseases can spread at alarming rates, leading to outbreaks in the community and across international borders.
Infection prevention and control (IPC) makes healthcare delivery safer by reducing or eliminating the risk of infection and outbreaks. IPC protects healthcare providers, patients and the surrounding community and is a cornerstone of a strong healthcare system.
IPC in resource-limited healthcare settings can be challenging due to many factors, including:
- Lack of trained IPC professionals and healthcare providers.
- Weak oversight and accountability systems to monitor patient safety.
- Overcrowding among patients in healthcare facilities.
- Lack of essential water, sanitation, hygiene (WASH).
- Lack of environmental cleaning and healthcare waste management.
- Limited investment in healthcare infrastructure including facilities, technology and staff.
Priorities
IICB works with partners on the following priorities:
- Drive global IPC priorities and shape IPC policies, guidance and best practices at the national and facility level.
- Coordinate efforts to combat infectious disease threats by developing regional and global networks for AR and HAI surveillance and infection prevention.
- Protect patients and healthcare workers by building strong, sustainable IPC programs at national and facility levels.
- Help laboratories produce the reliable, accurate data needed to detect and track HAIs and AR.
- Identify effective and low-cost strategies for AR and HAI surveillance and infection prevention through innovative studies and solutions.
- Help countries prepare for and respond to healthcare-related infectious disease outbreaks.
Story from the field
Supporting the 2022 Ebola response in Uganda
In the fall of 2022, IICB and the CDC Uganda Country Office, in collaboration with the Uganda Ministry of Health and the World Health Organization, worked with the Infectious Diseases Institute at Makerere University and the Kampala Capital City Authority in Uganda to advance IPC efforts during an Ebola outbreak in Uganda. Training healthcare providers was a key priority.
More than 700 healthcare providers across Kampala completed a two-day in-person training on navigating the Ebola outbreak. After returning to their home healthcare facilities, the participants continued learning through webinars.
To support these efforts, partners developed an Ebola IPC supervisor training program to help facilities sustainably implement IPC strategies and measures.
The trained staff learned IPC measures that can be implemented to prevent and control the spread of many infectious disease threats, not just Ebola. These efforts help protect healthcare providers and patients.
Where we work
The work of IICB would not be possible without our partners. Since 2014, IICB has worked with partners in the U.S. and more than 44 countries to advance global healthcare safety, including:
- Ministries of health
- Global public health organizations
- Academic institutions
- Other governmental organizations
- Non-governmental organizations