August 2022 HAIAR Newsletter

Washington State Department of Health sent this bulletin at 08/12/2022 07:00 AM PDT

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Announcements and resources

Monkeypox (MPV) Resources and Guidance

Signs & Symptoms

Monkeypox virus (MPV) infection can cause an illness that includes rashes and other symptoms. It does not commonly occur in the United States, but there is currently an outbreak of MPV with cases spreading in Washington state and across the country, as well as in other countries. MPV can spread person-to-person with any kind of close, skin-to-skin contact, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity. Anyone can get MPV. MPV can also spread between animals and from animals to people.

Learn more about Monkeypox virus on our webpage.

Current CDC Guidance

Infection Prevention and Control of Monkeypox in Healthcare Settings

Human-to-human transmission of Monkeypox virus occurs by direct contact with lesion material or from exposure to respiratory secretions. Reports of human-to-human transmission describe close contact with an infectious person. Transmission in healthcare settings has been rarely described.

Infection prevention and control recommendations for healthcare settings are provided in the Guideline for Isolation Precautions: Preventing Transmission of Infectious Agents in Healthcare Settings (2007). Recommendations and practices described in this 2007 guideline are intended to be used when providing care for any patient in a healthcare setting, including those with Monkeypox infection. Additional supporting infection prevention and control information is provided below.

Considerations for Reducing Monkeypox Transmission in Congregate Living Settings

If a staff member, volunteer, or resident of a congregate living setting has a Monkeypox virus infection, transmission could occur within the setting. For the purposes of this document, congregate living settings are facilities or other housing where people who are not related reside in close proximity and share at least one common room (e.g., sleeping room, kitchen, bathroom, living room). Congregate living settings can include correctional and detention facilities, homeless shelters, group homes, dormitories at institutes of higher education, seasonal worker housing, residential substance use treatment facilities, and other similar settings. These settings may provide personal care services but are not traditional healthcare settings (e.g. hospitals). If healthcare services are provided on site, they are usually provided in specific healthcare areas or by outside healthcare personnel (e.g., home health care workers). In these circumstances, healthcare personnel should follow recommendations in Infection Control: Healthcare Settings | Monkeypox | Poxvirus | CDC.

Have you watched our Long-term care visitation videos yet?

Scan the QR codes or go to our Special Projects Long-term care visitation guidance page to learn more.

LHJ Funding Opportunity

LHJs: HAI/AR grant application now open

The Washington State Department of Health’s Healthcare-Associated Infections / Antimicrobial Resistance (HAI/AR) program launched a request for applications for additional funding to support programs of local health jurisdiction and COVID-19 prevention and response activities. Three funding opportunities are available through the Strengthening HAI/AR Program Capacity (SHARP) grant and Nursing Home & Long-term Care Facilities Strike Teams (NH Strike Teams) grant.

The funding will support local health jurisdictions (LHJs) in their development and implementation of HAI/AR programs, if not already established. The funding could also be used to help increase capacity for more community projects and collaborations in jurisdictions with existing HAI/AR programs, as well as COVID-19 prevention and response activities in skilled and non-skilled nursing facilities.

The deadline to apply is August 26th. Additional details are available on the LHJ Application for HAI/AR and COVID-19 Funding page.

Please click on this link to access the application: HAI/AR and COVID-19 LHJ Application

If you have any questions or comments, email our grants and contracts specialist, Samantha Delmer.

Respiratory Protection

The DOH Occupational Health Team will be hosting monthly 30 minute, Lunch & Learn sessions on specific respiratory protection topics. The first Lunch & Learn will be on August 17, 2022, starting promptly at 12:05pm. Bring your topic questions to the Lunch & Learn or email them ahead of time to HAI-FitTest@doh.wa.gov.

August 17 – What makes a good RPA (Respirator Program Administrator)?  
September 21 – Tips on Using the 3M System for Medical Evaluations 
October 19 – Medical Evaluation Referrals 
November 16 – Respirator Job Accommodations 
December 21 – Recordkeeping 
January 18, 2023 – Fit Testing Tips

Zoom registration link

For more information contact Stella Daniels, Occupational Health Team Supervisor.

Applications Open for the New LTC Certification Exam

CBIC is now accepting applications for the Long-Term Care Certification in Infection Prevention (LTC-CIP) beta test examination!

The LTC-CIP is the first certification to specifically measure competencies necessary to protect long-term care residents from infection. Successful long-term care infection prevention certification indicates competence in the current basic knowledge needed for persons practicing infection prevention and control within a long-term care setting.

Before the LTC-CIP is officially released, CBIC needs your help in beta testing the examination. Beta testing is conducted to collect data and evaluate the performance of newly developed examination items. Candidates who participate in the beta examination will be offered a reduced application fee of $275.

The beta test application will close on October 3, 2022, with the beta testing period taking place September 15, 2022–October 15, 2022. The examination will be offered at Prometric testing centers worldwide or can be taken at home via Prometric’s live remote proctoring platform. At the conclusion of the beta test, the passing standard will be created and validated by a panel of qualified subject matter experts. Results from the beta test will be released in early January 2023.

Between October 16, 2022–January 31, 2023, the long-term care certification examination will not be available. The exam will reopen for regular testing in early February 2023.

To be eligible to take the long-term care exam, you must meet ALL the following requirements at the time of application:

Completed post-secondary education in a health-related field including but not limited to medicine, nursing degree/nursing diploma, laboratory technology, public health, or biology. Post-secondary includes public or private universities, colleges, community colleges etc.
Responsibility for the infection prevention and control programs/activities in a long-term care setting. Candidates will fill out an attestation form confirming this information.

Eligible for the LTC-CIP and interested in applying for the beta test? Apply online today. Questions? Please view our FAQs page or contact us.

ICAR Quarterly Metrics

Project Firstline- News you can use

Project First Line is a nationwide project supported by the CDC and the Washington State Department of Health to provide frontline healthcare workers with infection prevention and control education.

The Project First Line Podcast, hosted by the Washington State Department of Health, is geared toward frontline healthcare workers to bring awareness to infection prevention and public health practices. We identify the importance and impact of infection prevention on our lives and on the lives of our community.

Listen to the Project First Line podcasts

Project Firstline is excited to announce the release of new interactive resources!

Healthcare workers can test their infection control knowledge in real time with a variety of interactive resources, such as scenario-based activities, identify the infection risk activities, and an interactive infographic.

Short on time? Understanding the stress and time constraints of working in a healthcare setting, these resources are designed to be approachable and easy to use on your own schedule.

Visit the Project Firstline website to test your knowledge today!

Now recruiting healthcare workers for virtual interviews!

On behalf of CDC’s Project Firstline, RTI International and The Henne Group are looking for healthcare workers to provide insights on infection control training materials and their healthcare experiences.

We are looking for insights from:

Nurses
Environmental service technicians
Allied health professionals who deliver clinical care (such as CNAs, LPNs, LVNs, phlebotomists)

Eligible professions can work for:

Hospitals
Urgent care facilities
Outpatient facilities
Nursing homes or long-term care facilities

If you are interested, please complete the online form.

Partner resources

Candida Auris: Recommendations for Healthcare Outbreak Response

This newly updated document outlines recommended practices for healthcare outbreak response for Candida auris (C. auris), an emerging multidrug-resistant yeast that can cause invasive infections associated with high mortality. Topics include outbreak detection and reporting, investigation and control, and a variety of helpful resources.

Analysis of variation between diagnosis at admission vs discharge and clinical outcomes among adults with possible bacteremia.

This article discusses how inappropriate antibiotic prescribing can result in patient harm and costly antibiotic-resistant infections. Health record review of 1,477 patients admitted from the emergency department for suspected bacteremia infection revealed that 11.6% were misdiagnosed at infection site, and 3.1% did not have any infection. Misdiagnosis was not associated with worse short-term clinical outcomes but was associated with potentially inappropriate broad-spectrum antibiotic use.

National Updates

CDC Guidance Updates

CDC COVID-19 Guidance

Below is a list of healthcare IPC and other related guidance documents that have been recently published or updated by CDC. For additional updates, CDC’s What’s New & Updated tool is a helpful way to stay up-to-date with new and updated content on CDC’s COVID-19 webpages. Users can filter by date, webpage type, audience, and topic.

Interim Clinical Considerations for Use of COVID-19 Vaccines Currently Approved or Authorized in the United States (7/20/22)
COVID-19 Vaccination Interim Clinical Considerations FAQs (7/20/22)
COVID-19 Vaccines for People who are Moderately or Severely Immunocompromised (7/20/22)
COVID-19 Vaccine Boosters (7/20/22)
Stay Up to Date with Your COVID-19 Vaccines (7/19/22)
Interim Guidelines for Collecting and Handling of Clinical Specimens for COVID-19 Testing (7/15/22)

Core Infection Prevention and Control Practices for Safe Healthcare Delivery in All Settings – Recommendations of the Healthcare Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee

Adherence to infection prevention and control practices is essential to providing safe and high-quality patient care across all settings where healthcare is delivered. Substantial attention has been focused in recent years on improving infection prevention practices within acute care hospitals to optimize patient safety; many of these practices also need to be applied across multiple aspects of patient care. In addition, changes in healthcare during the past decade, driven at least in part by efforts to contain costs, have resulted in an increasing proportion and range of healthcare services being delivered outside of the acute care setting. These ambulatory and community-based healthcare encounters also can lead to infectious complications that can be prevented using those same infection prevention and control practices.

This document concisely describes a core set of infection prevention and control practices that are required in all healthcare settings, regardless of the type of healthcare provided. The practices were selected from among existing CDC recommendations and are the subset that HICPAC and its Core Practices Working Group determined were fundamental standards of care that are not expected to change based on emerging evidence or to be regularly altered by changes in technology or practices and are applicable across the continuum of healthcare settings. This document also is intended to improve consistency of language, reduce redundancy across guidelines, and provide a convenient reference wherein these recommendations are maintained. A review of existing CDC guidelines demonstrated many examples of similar recommendations in multiple guidelines with variability in language. The recommendations outlined in this document are intended to serve as a standard reference and reduce the need to repeatedly evaluate practices that are considered basic and accepted as standards of medical care. Readers are urged to consult the full text of CDC guidelines (see references) for additional background and rationale related to the core practice recommendations captured here.

Influenza Activity and Composition of the 2022–23 Influenza Vaccine — United States, 2021–22 Season

The severity of the 2021–22 influenza season was low, with two waves of influenza A activity. Influenza activity continued from October 2021 through mid-June 2022, with A(H3N2) viruses predominating throughout the season. This report also describes the composition of the Northern Hemisphere 2022–23 influenza vaccine.

CDC Special Report: COVID-19’s Impact on Antimicrobial Resistance

CDC has released a new report finding that much of the progress made in the United States in previous years combating antimicrobial resistance (AR) was lost, in large part, due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. This report concludes that the threat of antimicrobial-resistant infections is not only still present but has gotten worse—with resistant hospital-onset infections and deaths both increasing at least 15% during the first year of the pandemic.

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