ICT spoke with Cathryn Louise Murphy, RN, PhD, CIC, the 2010 president of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC). Murphy, who is managing director of Infection Control Plus, an independent, international infection control consulting company, is also associate professor in the faculty of Health Services and Medicine at Bond University in Australia. In light of this month’s annual APIC meeting, Murphy addresses a number of pertinent infection prevention-related issues.
Q: What unique perspectives can you bring to APIC, being from another country? What are the parallels and the differences of infection prevention and control efforts between the two countries? What is universal in scope?
A: Thanks for the opportunity to respond to these questions. I am thrilled that APIC has an opportunity to help Infection Control Today in its efforts to spread credible information about preventing infections. The perspectives I bring to APIC are diverse and based on many years work in several countries around the world, as well as within a variety of setting types in Australia and internationally. I have worked clinically as an infection preventionist for several governments, developing policy, legislation and guidelines, as well as working closely with medical industry as a private consultant. The year I spent working in the U.S. with the CDC’s Division of Healthcare Quality and Promotion provided me with unique insights into and a better understanding of infection prevention in the U.S.
Like Australia, many countries with well-developed, formal approaches to infection control have modeled their infection control systems on the U.S., with minor modifications to suit local circumstance such as healthcare funding or delivery. The major difference between the U.S. and the rest of the world is that most countries’ professional organizations are run by volunteers, which substantially limits their ability to influence important interventions or impact policy. In the U.S. APIC has a full-time staff of more than 30 people and represents the world’s largest infection prevention organization, giving the U.S. a decided advantage over most other countries, including Australia.
In Australia, like the U.S., access to most antimicrobial agents is by prescription only. This provides Australia, the U.S. and other countries with such models a minimum safeguard against uncontrolled antibiotic access and consumption. In contrast, in much of Asia many antibiotics are available for over-the-counter purchase, encouraging uncontrolled use and contributing to ever-increasing rates of multi-drug resistant organisms.
