CDC infection prevention advisory panel expected to end

Several members of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Healthcare Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee received termination notices, leading public health experts to believe the administration will terminate the committee. The administration archived the committee’s webpage and canceled a March meeting but has not announced the committee’s end. HICPAC meets up to eight times a year to develop guidance and recommendations for hospitals to prevent and control health care-associated infections. Although its work generally does not receive much attention, it garnered headlines last year when patient safety advocates criticized its endorsement of surgical masks over N95 respirators in a draft guidance that has not been finalized. Public health experts say the committee’s termination could result in more patients developing health care-acquired infections. (MedPage Today article, 4/29/25)