With CDC advisory panel disbanded, doctors fear impact: ‘Long live hospital infections’

The Healthcare Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee probably isn’t well known to the general public, but healthcare leaders say the committee has played a valuable role in protecting patients and hospital staff.

The committee advises the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on standards to prevent infections in hospitals, outpatient clinics and other healthcare settings. President Trump’s administration has opted to terminate the advisory body, and healthcare leaders warn that’s a major mistake.

Four groups focused on infectious diseases have all implored the CDC to reinstate the committee: The Infectious Diseases Society of America, The Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America, the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, and the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society.

In a joint statement, they said the committee is “a critical asset to the nation’s public health infrastructure. It provides evidence-based guidance that directly informs federal healthcare standards and protects both patients and healthcare workers across hospitals, outpatient clinics, and extended care facilities.”

Infectious disease experts note the termination of the committee is particularly ill-timed.

“The decision to terminate HICPAC creates a preventable gap in national preparedness and response capacity, leaving healthcare facilities without timely, evidence-based and expert-driven recommendations at a time when threats from emerging pathogens and antimicrobial resistance are on the rise,” the four societies said.

Eric Feigl-Ding, an epidemiologist and health economist, said in a post on X that the committee helped develop safety standards used in most U.S. hospitals, including guidelines on hand washing and mask wearing.

In a critical post on X, he wrote, “The committee is now dead; long live hospital infections.”

Dr. Syra Madad, chief biopreparedness officer for NYC Health & Hospitals, wrote in a post on X that disbanding the committee “creates a dangerous gap in U.S. healthcare safety.”

“For decades, HICPAC has provided trusted, evidence-based guidance to prevent infections and protect patients and healthcare workers,” Madad wrote. “Its loss risks lives. Reinstatement is critical.”

In an op-ed for Infection Control Today (a sister publication of Chief Healthcare Executive®), Heather Stoltzfus, a registered nurse and consultant, wrote that the committee had produced science-based, nonpartisan guidelines for more than 30 years.

“Without it, hospitals and public health professionals risk fragmentation in their infection control practices. The development and dissemination of national guidelines may fall behind emerging threats,” she wrote.

The dissolution of the committee also comes just as it was poised to revise guidance to prevent the transmission of infectious agents in healthcare settings, Stoltzfus wrote. The guidelines hadn’t been updated since 2007.

Alexander Sundermann, an assistant professor of epidemiology at the University of Pittsburgh, warned of the consequences of terminating the advisory body in a piece for MedPage Today last month. He wrote that getting rid of the committee would result in “setting back infection prevention decades and leaving our healthcare system unprepared for the next threat.”

“As we face rising antimicrobial resistance, new and re-emerging pathogens, and an overburdened healthcare system, the need for unified, evidence-based infection prevention has never been greater,” Sundermann wrote. “Now is not the time to dismantle an effective public health tool we have counted on for decades.”

President Trump’s administration has launched a sweeping reorganization of federal health programs and has pushed 20,000 workers out of the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. Healthcare leaders have warned that the cuts have gone far beyond streamlining administrators and have removed key personnel and programs designed to keep Americans safe.

Public health leaders have warned that many of the cuts are dismantling programs to enable healthcare organizations and health agencies to prepare for future threats and respond to emergencies. The Trump administration also moved to pull $11 billion from state and local agencies in COVID funds; states have gone to court to prevent the loss of the funds.

Tom Cotter, CEO of the Health Response Alliance, told Chief Healthcare Executive® in a recent interview that federal and local governments can’t afford to lose capabilities in preparedness and response.

The Trump administration has proposed eliminating the Hospital Preparedness Program, which provides aid to hospitals to plan and respond to public health emergencies.

Cotter has warned that’s a crucial program because it is “the funding stream for all things emergency preparedness at health care facilities.”