New H1N1 infection control guidance from CDC

The CDC will soon issue updated infection control guidance for nH1N1 in health care settings. Details of the impending conference call are here:

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Department of Labor would like to invite you to join them on a conference call to update and inform stakeholders about the release of the revised 2009 H1N1 Influenza: CDC Guidance on Infection Control in Healthcare Facilities. This conference call will have speakers from the CDC, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) and Department of Labor/Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA). Speakers will address various topics related to updated recommendations in this guidance. Call information is provided.

What: Conference Call/Information Sharing Session
Date and Time: Wednesday October 14, 2009 at 1:00 PM ET
Speakers: representative from CDC, NIOSH, and Department of Labor/OSHA
Call-In Number: 888-283-2960
Passcode: 7113863

Please note that there will be a question and answer session following speaker
presentations. The revised 2009 H1N1 Influenza: CDC Guidance on Infection Control in Healthcare Facilities will be available following the conference call on the CDC H1N1 Flu Website at http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/guidance/.

Expect the new guidance to be mostly the same as the old guidance, but to allow some "wiggle room" for hospitals to use surgical masks instead of N95s in order to preserve N95 masks for aerosol-generating procedures, TB control, etc.

The only reason to care about this is if you are in a facility or state that is bound by CDC guidance. We already follow the Iowa Department of Public Health guidance, which mirrors that of the World Health Organization. Oh yeah, the other reason to care is if OSHA decides to enforce the CDC approach and to punish hospitals that have chosen reasonable and feasible alternatives. As described above, an OSHA representative will be on the call.