Policy Updates

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced a reorganization to comply with the President’s order to reduce the workforce. The restructuring, which is expected to take place in late May, 2025, will reduce HHS staff by about 20,000 full-time employees. Among changes that could impact IPC are: Employee cuts will include: Read the … Continued

APIC, SHEA, IDSA, and the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society (PIDS) sent a joint letter to HHS Secretary Kennedy opposing the possible elimination of HICPAC. The letter identifies the many ways HICPAC makes healthcare safer by providing evidence-based guidance on infection prevention and control practices. Read the APIC/SHEA/IDSA/PIDS letter supporting HICPAC.

The President nominated Susan Monarez, Ph.D., to be CDC director after withdrawing his earlier nomination. As then-deputy director of the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H), Dr. Monarez was the opening speaker at APIC’s 2024 AI Summit and talked about the impact of information technology on IPC. Read APIC’s statement on the nomination of … Continued

The CDC Health Alert Network (HAN) issued a health update to provide additional information about the ongoing risk of dengue virus infection and updates to testing recommendations. Dengue transmission is high in some parts of the U.S., Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and other regions in the Americas. The peak season for dengue coincides … Continued

The CDC Clinician Outreach and Communication Activity (COCA) team scheduled a webinar to update attendees on the re-emerging threat of murine typhus in the U.S. The webinar will be Thursday, March 27 at 2:00 -3:00 pm ET. Continuing education is available. Click here for more information and link to the webinar.

The CDC Health Alert Network (HAN) issued a Health Advisory to notify clinicians, public health officials, and potential travelers about the measles outbreak in Texas and New Mexico and provide guidance for prevention and monitoring. So far this year, 208 measles cases have been confirmed in Texas and New Mexico, with one death reported in … Continued

HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. rescinded the long-standing policy of allowing public input to proposed regulations. The “notice and comment” process of rulemaking is mandated under the Administrative Procedure Act of 1946 (APA) to encourage input from the public and subject matter experts in developing regulations. Secretary Kennedy has determined that all HHS regulations … Continued

The CDC issued a Health Alert Network (HAN) Health Advisory to notify clinicians and the public about a recently confirmed outbreak of Ebola in Uganda. Currently, no suspected or confirmed Ebola cases related to this outbreak have been reported in the U.S., or outside of Uganda. However, as a precaution and because there are other viral … Continued

CMS invoked the Extraordinary Circumstance Exception (ECE) to grant exceptions to certain quality reporting requirements to facilities in areas recently impacted by natural disasters. The exemptions include facilities in Los Angeles County, California impacted by wildfires and in Georgia, North Carolina, and Tennessee impacted by Hurricane Helene. Read the CMS ECE reference guide. If you … Continued