UIC Epicenter for Prevention of Healthcare Associated Infections

 描述(由申请人提供)：由于实践中基于证据的改变，美国医疗保健相关感染(HAI)的负担已经减少。然而，将埃博拉病毒疾病引入美国的准备工作使医疗机构的能力变得紧张，医疗工作者(HCW)中的两个HAI表明准备工作并不完全有效。需要循证指导，以选择和实施感染控制和预防预防措施，以应对新出现的严重传染病。UIC预防医疗相关感染中心的目标是进行基础和早期翻译研究，以促进HAI 在严重和新发传染病的背景下，在患者和卫生工作者中进行预防。感染患者向环境中排放病原体，然后通过环境传播到易感人群身上的组织，在那里可能会发生感染。因此，排放过程和环境污染是通过多种途径暴露的HAI风险的关键决定因素，但病原体排放和环境负荷的大小尚未得到很好的表征。卫生工作者穿着个人防护装备(PPE)，以防止病原体到达可能发生感染的组织，但人们对环境中有多少病原体突破该装备的了解有限。这些是关于HAI风险的基本知识方面的关键差距，将通过UIC震中中心的活动加以解决。具体地说，研究将在模拟医疗活动的实验室环境中进行，并在医疗环境中进行，以确定 环境污染的大小和决定因素，并定量测试不同组合的个人防护装备的有效性。将通过对医疗保健和工业环境中使用的个人防护设备进行库存和广泛范围的评估，确定潜在的个人防护设备组合以进行测试。这些信息将有助于识别非PPE感染控制和预防干预措施，满足医疗机构选择PPE的信息需求，并有助于量化评估卫生工作者和患者的HAI风险。根据我们的研究结果，我们将建议和进行新的培训内容和交付方法的试点规模评估，以改善卫生工作者和医疗机构对严重和新出现的传染病的准备。这项工作的成果将是医疗保健组织、政府机构和公共卫生研究人员可以使用的概括性知识和方法，以有效和系统地计划预防HAIS。

 DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The burden of healthcare associated infections (HAIs) in the United States has decreased owing to evidence- based changes in practice. Preparations for introduction of Ebola Virus Disease to the U.S., however, strained the capacity of healthcare organizations, and two HAIs among healthcare workers (HCWs) showed that preparations were not fully effective. Evidence-based guidance is required for the selection and implementation of infection control and prevention precautions in anticipation of emerging and severe infectious diseases. The goal of the UIC Epicenter for Prevention of Healthcare Associated Infections is to perform basic and early translational research that will facilitate HAI prevention among patients and HCWs in the context of severe and emerging infectious diseases. Infectious patients emit pathogens into the environment, which are then transported through the environment to tissues on a susceptible person where infection may occur. Emission processes and environmental contamination, therefore, are key determinants of HAI risk through multiple routes of exposure, but the magnitude of pathogen emission and environmental load is poorly characterized. Personal protective equipment (PPE) is worn by HCWs to prevent pathogens from reaching tissues where infection may occur, but there is limited knowledge about what fraction of pathogens in the environment break-through the equipment. These represent key gaps in fundamental knowledge about HAI risk that will be addressed through the activities of the UIC Epicenter. Specifically, studies will be performed in laboratory settings with simulated healthcare activities and in healthcare settings to identify the magnitude and determinants of environmental contamination, and quantitatively test the effectiveness of different combinations of PPE. Potential combinations of PPE will be identified for testing through an inventory and broadly scoped evaluation of PPE used in healthcare and industrial settings. This information will facilitate the identification of non-PPE infection contrl and prevention interventions, meet information needs of healthcare organizations selecting PPE, and facilitate quantitative assessment of HAI risk among HCWs and patients. Informed by our findings, we will propose and conduct pilot-scale evaluation of new training content and delivery methods that will improve the preparedness of HCWs and healthcare organizations for severe and emerging infectious diseases. The outcome of this work will be generalizable knowledge and methods that can be used by healthcare organizations, government agencies and public health researchers to efficiently and systematically plan to prevent HAIs.