The Bug of the Month helps educate readers about existing and emerging pathogens that are clinically important in today's health care facilities. This month’s Bug of the Month isn’t quite like anything we’ve featured before. Can you solve the clues before the final reveal?
Federal officials say new gain-of-function restrictions will improve biosecurity, but infectious disease experts warn limiting carefully regulated research could weaken preparedness for future outbreaks and emerging public health threats.
What does a measles exposure investigation have in common with an Ebola outbreak? More than you might think. A new perspective explores how trust, surveillance, and contact tracing shaped Uganda's successful Ebola response.
Sepsis diagnoses are increasing, but are health systems measuring true clinical deterioration or changes in documentation? A new perspective explores how real-time surveillance and coordinated workflows can improve sepsis response and patient outcomes.
How much infection prevention training should volunteers receive before participating in medical missions? A new perspective in Infection Control Today follows one college student's experience volunteering in rural Cambodia, where he was asked to perform clinical tasks well beyond his training. Years later, he realized just how many infection prevention risks he had unknowingly encountered. The article explores what his experience reveals about volunteer preparation, resource-limited care, and why basic infection prevention education should be considered essential for anyone participating in clinical outreach. Read the full story.
What if sterile isn't enough? Sterile processing has traditionally focused on ensuring instruments are cleaned, assembled, and sterilized correctly. But today's health care environment requires something more. This article explores why coordination between sterile processing, the operating room, supply chain, and clinical teams has become just as important as technical excellence. Learn why experts believe surgical readiness should become the next benchmark for sterile processing performance.
Cyclospora cases continue to rise across the United States, leaving many people with questions about symptoms, testing, and treatment. In this expert commentary, a physician explains: • Why Cyclospora is difficult to diagnose • Why symptoms can last for weeks • Why investigators linked the outbreak to contaminated lettuce • Why ivermectin is not an effective treatment • How you can reduce your risk
The FDA and CDC traced a Cyclospora outbreak to lettuce from Taco Bell in 5 states. Learn the latest findings, expert guidance, and what infection preventionists need to know.
How can you prevent Cyclospora infection? This article outlines practical food safety measures, symptom recognition, diagnostic recommendations, and prevention strategies for patients and health care professionals during the current multistate Cyclospora outbreak.
Cyclospora infections are increasing across the US. This article explains how Cyclospora cayetanensis spreads, common symptoms, current outbreak investigations, and the role IPs and IPC professionals play in surveillance, diagnosis, reporting, and public health collaboration.
What makes contact tracing effective during an Ebola outbreak? This article explains how IPs and public health teams use the same core principles, such as rapid case identification, exposure assessment, contact monitoring, and community engagement, to reduce disease transmission. Using the ongoing Bundibugyo Ebola outbreak in the DRC as a case study, it highlights why trust, surveillance, and high contact follow-up rates remain essential to successful IPC efforts worldwide.
What are the most common infection control violations in dental practices? This article explains why hand hygiene, improper PPE use, and failure to wear utility gloves continue to challenge dental teams and offers practical, evidence-based strategies to improve OSHA adherence, strengthen infection prevention practices, and enhance patient and staff safety.
APIC 2026 presenters Ekaete Usoh, MPH, MSc, CIC, VA-BC, and Risha Patel, MPH, CIC, shared practical strategies for reducing health care-associated infections through health equity, standardized data tracking, and interdisciplinary collaboration while encouraging infection preventionists to take advantage of APIC's educational and networking opportunities.
Many infection preventionists from nonclinical backgrounds experience imposter syndrome despite demonstrating strong technical expertise and measurable patient safety outcomes. This commentary explores how mentorship, leadership development, and organizational support can strengthen professional identity, improve retention, and help the infection prevention profession embrace diverse educational pathways.
Think you know your infection control acronyms? Test your expertise with our ICT Expert Acronym Challenge! From CLABSI to VRE, this 20-question puzzle covers essential health care-acquired infection prevention terminology that every infection control professional should master. How many can you match correctly? Try the challenge now! Perfect for IPC specialists, infection prevention coordinators, and health care epidemiologists!
Emerging research shows the human microbiome plays a critical role in preventing health care-associated infections, antimicrobial resistance, and dysbiosis, offering new opportunities for infection prevention and patient care.
What should infection preventionists do when a patient presents with possible anthrax exposure after a suspicious incident? This article explores a realistic bioterrorism response scenario, highlighting the critical role of infection preventionists, public health partnerships, and laboratory coordination. It also introduces Bacillus cereus biovar anthracis (Bcbva), an emerging pathogen that can mimic anthrax while appearing to be a common laboratory contaminant. Learn how to recognize potential biosecurity threats, navigate specimen management, and build the public health relationships needed before an emergency occurs.
The 2026 FIFA World Cup will present one of the most complex infectious disease challenges ever faced by infection preventionists and public health officials. Spanning 3 countries, 16 host cities, and millions of international travelers, the tournament creates opportunities for the spread of respiratory illnesses, foodborne diseases, sexually transmitted infections, vector-borne pathogens, and rare high-consequence diseases. While the matches will last only a few weeks, surveillance efforts will need to continue for months afterward as infections such as tuberculosis and other travel-associated diseases emerge.
Test your infection prevention and control knowledge with this IPC-themed crossword puzzle featuring terms and concepts related to hand hygiene, sterilization, PPE, outbreak prevention, and healthcare-associated infections. Designed for health care professionals, the puzzle offers an engaging way to reinforce key IPC principles while promoting education and awareness.
Sterile processing departments (SPD) are increasingly being pushed beyond reactive maintenance models as equipment failures, workflow disruptions, and tray defects continue to impact surgical readiness and patient safety. This article explores why SPD may be uniquely positioned for an AI-driven predictive maintenance revolution, examining how systems thinking, IoT integration, human factors research, and real-time equipment monitoring could help reduce disruptions before failures occur. The piece also highlights the growing shift toward treating maintenance as a strategic reliability function tied directly to infection prevention, OR efficiency, and operational resilience across health care systems.
The MV Hondius hantavirus outbreak exposed a critical surveillance gap: by the time official alerts were issued, exposed passengers had already dispersed across multiple countries. This article explores how infection preventionists can use emerging open-source dashboards, real-time data aggregation tools, and internal informatics systems to bridge the dangerous lag between exposure events and actionable public health intelligence. From cruise ship outbreaks to facility-level exposures, the piece examines how digital surveillance may help IPs shift from reactive outbreak reconstruction to faster, proactive containment strategies.
The global infection control supplies market is projected to grow from $58.5 billion in 2026 to $106.1 billion by 2035 as healthcare systems invest more heavily in infection prevention, sterilization technologies, PPE, and automated disinfection solutions. Driven by rising healthcare-associated infections, aging populations, chronic disease burden, and increasing regulatory pressure, the market is evolving toward smarter, technology-enabled infection prevention strategies across hospitals, ambulatory surgical centers, and outpatient care settings.
Test your infection prevention and control knowledge with this IPC-themed crossword puzzle featuring terms and concepts related to hand hygiene, sterilization, PPE, outbreak prevention, and health care-associated infections. Designed for health care professionals, the puzzle offers an engaging way to reinforce key IPC principles while promoting education and awareness.
Sterile processing leaders Rebecca Lauber, FHSPA, and Vanessa Frank share insights from their HSPA 2026 presentation on career growth, professional identity, and active learning. Their message is clear: Empowering technicians, strengthening education, and building confidence are key to advancing patient safety and the future of sterile processing.
A Kansas jury awarded $7.65 million in a fatal KU Medical infection case tied to contaminated heater-cooler devices, renewing attention on Mycobacterium chimaera risks, device disinfection failures, and patient safety in cardiac surgery.
As Arlene Bush, CRCST, CER, CIS, CHL, SME, DSMD, CRMST, concludes her HSPA presidency, she reflects on advocacy, certification efforts, and collaboration, emphasizing mentorship and continued progress in sterile processing ahead of the 2026 conference in Baltimore.
This 6-part series chronicles the journey of 2 infection prevention leaders, Brenna Doran and Jessica Swain, who partnered to research and shed light on the critical issue of IP staffing in the current health care landscape. The fourth article in the series will focus on the impact of geographic variations and staffing models on the support for infection prevention programs.
A national recruiter shares insights on infection prevention hiring trends, highlighting evolving background requirements, persistent RN bias, salary disparities, and the growing role of advocacy and data in shaping a more inclusive, competitive IPC workforce.
Federal court halts vaccine schedule changes, upholding evidence-based immunization practices. ICT reached out to key opinion leaders to find out their thoughts
The Bug of the Month helps educate readers about existing and emerging pathogens that are clinically important in today's health care facilities.
