Healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) are a major public health concern to patients, healthcare workers and visitors. Global estimates suggest that at any given time, over 1.4 million patients worldwide are impacted by infections acquired in healthcare settings. HAIs can result in prolonged hospital stays, increased health system costs, disease severity and mortality. Beyond the healthcare environment, mismanagement of HAIs can contribute to the spread of AMR.

The overarching aim of the Healthcare-Associated Infection Interest Group is to bring together a diverse group of epidemiologists, behavioural scientists, statisticians, microbiologists, geneticists, and clinicians with extensive experience to investigate and understand the pathogenesis and impact of HAIs, and explore ways to prevent and control them, through the development of innovative new implementation strategies, diagnostics, and drugs.

Our work currently covers a broad spectrum, including hand hygiene, environmental hygiene, behaviour change, antimicrobial stewardship, neonatal sepsis, genomics, transmission dynamics, outbreak detection, laboratory capacity, carriage acquisition, prevention and control measures.