Organizations Involved in Infection Prevention

Infection Control and Prevention

ORGANIZATIONS INVOLVED IN INFECTION PREVENTION

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) are federal agencies involved in controlling and preventing infection.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

The impact of infectious diseases changes through time as micro-organisms mutate, as human behavior patterns shift, or as thera-peutic options change. The Centers for Disease Control andPrevention (CDC) serve an important function in providingtimely scientific recommendations about many of the situations that a nurse may face when caring for or teaching a patient with an infectious disease. The CDC routinely publishes recommendations, guidelines, and summaries. Through its Internet site (http://www.cdc.gov) and its weekly journal, the Morbidity and MortalityWeekly Report (MMWR), the CDC reports significant cases, out-breaks, environmental hazards, or other public health problems. Examples of important CDC guidelines and summaries are Guide lines for Preventing the Transmission of Tuberculosis in Health Care Facilities, Recommendations for Prevention of HIV Transmission in Health Care Settings, Sexually Transmitted Diseases Treatment Guidelines, and Standards for Pediatric Immunization Practices.

Occupational Safety and Health Administration

In contrast to the CDC goal of disease reduction, the goal of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is the reduction of risk exposure. CDC Guidelines are voluntary, whereasOSHA publishes mandatory regulations and imposes fines on those found to be noncompliant. OSHA requires that all health care providers have routine educational updates about prevention of bloodborne pathogens and about TB control. Because each health care institution is required to prepare and disseminate to its employees a bloodborne exposure plan and a TB exposure plan, nurses should be familiar with the details of control in their specific institutions.