Infection Control Today celebrates 30 years of covering the people, science, and challenges shaping infection prevention with another milestone: its first digital magazine, featuring outbreak analysis, biosecurity, respiratory testing, sterile processing, professional leadership, conference coverage, and more.
We are so excited about this first!
For 30 years, Infection Control Today® (ICT®) has evolved alongside the infection prevention profession, covering emerging pathogens, health care-associated infections, environmental hygiene, sterile processing, antimicrobial resistance, public health, and the people working every day to keep patients and health care workers safe.
Now, we are turning another page.
We are thrilled to introduce the first digital-only magazine edition of ICT, a new way to bring together the reporting, expert perspectives, practical guidance, and conversations our readers have come to expect from ICT.
We could not have chosen a more fitting collection of stories to begin this next chapter.
This September issue reflects just how expansive infection prevention has become. It takes readers from outbreak response and biosecurity to respiratory testing, sterile processing, professional leadership, and some of the biggest infection prevention conferences of 2026.
Brenna Doran, PhD, MA, ACC, CIC, AL-CIP, the editor-in-chief of this quarter, examines the ongoing Bundibugyo virus disease outbreak through the numbers, showing how outbreak data can reveal a far more complicated story than a single case count. She also explores a question increasingly relevant to infection preventionists: Could your next patient be patient zero? Her biosecurity feature examines the IP's role in preparing for threats that may first present at the doors of an ordinary health care facility.
We also look backward to understand how far the profession has come. In “How 3 Decades of SHEA Presidents Shaped the Science and Soul of Infection Prevention,” I explore the people, decisions, and changes that helped shape infection prevention over the past 30 years.
Kevin V. King, PhD, challenges the traditional concept of a defined “flu season” and examines why year-round respiratory testing matters for infection prevention and control. Meanwhile, our conference coverage brings readers highlights from Exchange26, the 2026 APIC Annual Conference & Exposition, and AIDS 2026, the 26th International AIDS Conference.
Sterile processing takes center stage in our cover feature. Marjorie Wall, EdBA, CRCST, CIS, CHL, CSSBB, explores purpose, mastery, and belonging, and what it will take to build intrinsic motivation among the next generation in sterile processing.
And because infection prevention should occasionally make you smile while making you think, this issue also includes our Bug of the Month, “You Probably Didn't Notice Me…Until It Was Too Late,” along with the September Infection Prevention Crossword.
A digital magazine gives us another way to connect these stories and the people behind them. But while the format is changing, what matters most about ICT is not.
It is the people.
The infection preventionists, epidemiologists, environmental services professionals, sterile processing professionals, nurses, physicians, laboratorians, researchers, educators, and public health professionals who share what they have learned so someone else can protect the next patient.
We hope you turn every page.
