Importance of Reinstating CDC’s Healthcare Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee (HICPAC)  

Arlington, VA – CDC’s Healthcare Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee (HICPAC) is a critical asset to the nation’s public health infrastructure. It provides evidence-based guidance that directly informs federal healthcare standards and protects both patients and healthcare workers across hospitals, outpatient clinics, and extended care facilities. HICPAC’s recommendations are the basis for healthcare practices that facilities use daily to keep people safe from complications from healthcare-associated infections (including disinfection and sterilization practices for patient care instruments and equipment, isolation precautions for infectious diseases both confirmed and suspected, and disease-specific care and guidance recommendations).  These guidelines inform facility-level policies, procedures, and standard work to keep patients and health care workers safe.

The decision to terminate HICPAC creates a preventable gap in national preparedness and response capacity, leaving healthcare facilities without timely, evidence-based and expert-driven recommendations at a time when threats from emerging pathogens and antimicrobial resistance are on the rise. The committee’s interdisciplinary composition—drawing on expertise in epidemiology, infectious disease, infection prevention, hospital administration, occupational health, and patient advocacy —ensures that its guidance is scientifically rigorous and operationally practical. Disbanding HICPAC jeopardizes decades of progress in preventing healthcare-associated infections. The depth of HICPAC’s review of scientific evidence and its members’ hundreds of years of collective experience result in guidelines widely accepted as the standard of care by healthcare accrediting organizations and CMS. The absence of this committee’s guidance creates a significant void in the field, fosters uncertainty among healthcare facilities, and put patients at risk.  

HICPAC is an essential component of patient safety, and its contributions cannot be replicated by the private sector. As professional societies representing the infection prevention and infectious diseases community, we strongly urge CDC through HHS to reinstate HICPAC to preserve a resilient, coordinated, and science-driven public health infrastructure.   

About APIC
Founded in 1972, the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC) is the leading association for infection preventionists and epidemiologists. With more than 15,000 members, APIC advances the science and practice of infection prevention and control. APIC carries out its mission through research, advocacy, and patient safety; education, credentialing, and certification; and fostering the development of the infection prevention and control workforce of the future. Together with our members and partners, we are working toward a safer world through the prevention of infection. Join us and learn more at apic.org.

Media contacts: Aaron Cohen, aaroncohenpr@gmail.com; Malina Jacobowitz, mjacobowitz@apic.org

About SHEA

The Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA) works to advance the science and practice of healthcare epidemiology and infection prevention. Founded in 1980, SHEA promotes education, research, and advocacy to improve patient care and safety. For more information, visit www.shea-online.org.   

Media Contact: Lindsay MacMurray, lmacmurray@shea-online.org

About PIDS

PIDS membership encompasses leaders across the global scientific and public health spectrum, including clinical care, advocacy, academics, government, and the pharmaceutical industry. From fellowship training to continuing medical education, research, regulatory issues and guideline development, PIDS members are the core professionals advocating for the improved health of children with infectious diseases both nationally and around the world, participating in critical public health and medical professional advisory committees that determine the treatment and prevention of infectious diseases, immunization practices in children, and the education of pediatricians. For more information, visit http://www.pids.org.

Media Contact: Alan Fleming,  AFleming@idsociety.org

About IDSA
The Infectious Diseases Society of America is a global community of 13,000-plus clinicians, scientists and public health experts working together to solve humanity’s smallest and greatest challenges, from tiny microbes to global outbreaks. Rooted in science, committed to health equity and driven by curiosity, our compassionate and knowledgeable members safeguard the health of individuals, our communities and the world by advancing the treatment and prevention of infectious diseases.

Media Contact: Alex Cornbrooks, idsa@messagepartnerspr.com