Selected global health care activities of the Hospital Infections Program, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

In the past decade, rapid advances in medical technology and increasing populations of immunodeficient patients worldwide have resulted in increased interest in health care-associated infections in developed and developing countries. Many health care facilities in the developing world now have the capability to provide specialized services, such as dialysis, cardiac catheterization, and transplantation. The increased availability of these specialized procedures and the use of invasive devices have predictably been accompanied by an increased number of health care-associated infections globally: Implementation of infection control programs in the developing world has not been very successful because of lack of personnel and financial resources, laboratory capacity, or limited access to formal training in hospital epidemiology and infection control. Throughout the years, the Hospital Infections Program (HIP), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), has expanded its global activities in response to an increasing demand for epidemiologic assistance and training in issues related to nosocomial infections. This article summarizes selected recent international outbreak investigations (1993 through 1998) conducted by HIP and provides an overview of some of HIP's ongoing global activities.