Funding Year 2016 Epidemiology and Laboratory Capacity (ELC) HAI Funded Activities

• Educational Efforts to Promote Appropriate Antibiotic Use is to assist state and local-level agencies in implementing health communication programs and behavioral interventions to promote appropriate antibiotic use and prevent the spread of antimicrobial resistance. These programs will impact the knowledge, attitudes and behaviors of the general public and health care providers on this topic and contribute to a reduction in inappropriate prescribing and antimicrobial resistance.
• Detection and Response Infrastructure includes the coordination and implementation of healthcare-associated infections (HAI)/antimicrobial resistance (AR) prevention activities across the state/city/territory, facilitating the state/city/territorial multidisciplinary advisory group on HAI/AR, and implementing and reporting on progress of the state/city/territorial HAI/AR plan and associated HAI/AR prevention activities. Activities will focus on promoting proven HAI prevention practices, detecting and responding to CRE outbreaks, and increasing the use of National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) to intervene, track, and report HAIs, and AR pathogens transmitted in healthcare settings.
• Coordinated Prevention is to support state and local health departments in building additional capacity for antibiotic use and resistance tracking and expanding coordinated prevention and stewardship activities (beyond that which is described in Detection and Response Infrastructure) within HAI/AR prevention programs.
• Data Validation is to build and sustain health department programs’ ability to ensure the quality of healthcare-associated infection data reported to the National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN).
• Hemodialysis Bloodstream Infection (BSI) is to improve infection control practices and reduce infections in outpatient hemodialysis centers.
• Injection Safety is to drive implementation of safe injection practices among healthcare providers through education, training, and other means.  The CDC-led Safe Injection Practices Coalition (SIPC) collaborates with health departments and other partners to achieve this goal.
• State Carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) Laboratory Capacity is to support state public health laboratories to confirm CRE and carbapenem-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa (CRPA) and detect carbapenemase resistance mechanisms. This laboratory capacity supports state HAI/AR prevention programs within the region and confirms/characterizes CRE from hospitals within the state. Response to outbreaks of infectious disease will be improved by the state public health laboratory’s ability to speed up the identification of CRE.
• Antimicrobial Resistance Regional Laboratory Network is to support an Antimicrobial Resistance Laboratory Network (ARLN).  An AR regional lab provides cutting-edge laboratory support, including specialized reference testing needs for confirmation and characterization of unusual or emerging resistance in bacteria and Candida isolates submitted from state public health within the region. The ARLN will also support state HAI/AR and other AR prevention programs by providing laboratory testing to support outbreak response and characterize emerging resistance patterns. Response to outbreaks of infectious disease will be improved by the ARLN’s ability to speed up the identification of the most concerning resistant threats. In coordination with CDC, regional laboratories also test nationally representative isolates (i.e., isolates from all or multiple regions) to help identify new types of resistance or new resistant trends and implement appropriate prevention interventions in response to findings. The ARLN will increase susceptibility testing for high-priority bacteria like CRE and Neisseria gonorrhoeae, keep pace with rapidly mutating bacteria so laboratories are ready to respond to new threats, and provide capacity to do surveillance testing or screening. Drug-resistant organisms that are candidates for new diagnostics and antibiotics will be identified by the ARLN. The ARLN will also provide a platform for testing newer technology that not only increases the amount of testing, but also shortens the turn-around time for generating public health data for preventing AR infections.

Learn more about HAI prevention activities in your state.