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 pop ulations of immunodeficient patients worldwide have resulted in increased i nterest in health care-associated infections in developed and developing co untries. Many health care facilities in the developing world now have the c apability to provide specialized services, such as dialysis, cardiac cathet erization, and transplantation. The increased availability of these special ized procedures and the use of invasive devices have predictably been accom panied 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 resourc es, laboratory capacity, or limited access to formal training in hospital e pidemiology and infection control. Throughout the years, the Hospital Infections Program (HIP), Centers for Di sease Control and Prevention (CDC), has expanded its global activities in r esponse to an increasing demand for epidemiologic assistance and training i n 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 .