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This award-winning blog supplements the articles in Hospital Infection Control & Prevention.

APIC and SHEA urge Congress to increase funding to fight infectious diseases

The Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC) and the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA) are urging Congress to sustain and increase funding to “detect dangerous infectious diseases and protect the American public from healthcare-associated infections (HAIs).”

In joint testimony delivered to the Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies the nation's leading infection control groups urged resource support for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and its various agencies.

“HAIs are among the leading causes of preventable death in the United States,” APIC and SHEA stated in the testimony. “In hospitals alone, CDC estimates that one in 20 hospitalized patients has an HAI, while over one million HAIs occur across healthcare settings annually.”

APIC and SHEA requested $27.5 million for the CDC’s National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) and the Prevention Epicenters Program; $182.2 million for Core Infectious Diseases to include funding for Healthcare-Associated Infections, Antimicrobial Resistance, and the Emerging Infections Program (EIP). They also requested $34 million for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) to reduce and prevent HAIs. That includes $11.6 million in HAI research grants and $22.4 million in HAI contracts including the Comprehensive Unit-based Safety Program (CUSP). In addition, they requested $500 million annually for the National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases’ antibacterial and related diagnostics efforts by the end of FY 2014.