The Healthcare Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee (HICPAC), a key component in the nation’s public health infrastructure, undertakes a crucial role in regulating and defining safety standards for healthcare systems across America. This variously composed committee, established under the aegis of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), is equipped to address and prevent risks posed by emerging pathogens and emerging antimicrobial resistance, particularly in diverse healthcare settings like hospitals, outpatient clinics, and extended care facilities. Its functioning has been developed and aided by contributions from multiple disciplines such as infection prevention, epidemiology, hospital administration, occupational health, and patient advocacy.
These interdisciplinary inputs impart an element of operational practicality and scientific rigor to HICPAC’s guidance. HICPAC’s methodologies are centered on generating evidence-based guidance which directly informs federal healthcare standards intended to safeguard patients and healthcare workers. Such guidelines extend to various aspects of healthcare, including sterilization and disinfection practices for patient care instruments and equipment, infectious disease isolation precautions, and disease-specific care and guidance recommendations.
These protocols form the basic foundational structures for safety practices that healthcare facilities employ each day, consequently protecting people from healthcare-associated infection complications. Despite its pivotal role, the decision to terminate HICPAC has drastically affected the national and healthcare sector’s preparedness and response capability to emerging health threats. This termination action, indeed, leaves healthcare facilities without the benefit of timely, evidence-based and expert-driven recommendations.
Moreover, it triggers uncertainty among healthcare facilities and exposes patients to potential health risk. The absence of HICPAC marks a significant void and reverse of decades of progress in healthcare-associated infection prevention. We, being a part of various professional societies representing the infection prevention community, are therefore creating awareness about the irreplaceable significance of HICPAC and thereby, strongly urging CDC via the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to reinstate HICPAC in order to fortify and advance the resilience, coordination, and science-driven public health infrastructure.