Alabama's health department and the University of Alabama at Birmingham have partnered to establish the Alabama Regional Center for Infection Prevention and Control. The center will offer consultation and support services to the state's infection prevention workforce.
As part of the initiative, UAB experts will work alongside the health department's Infectious Disease and Outbreaks Division to respond to emerging and reemerging diseases, according to a June 28 news release.
The center's purpose is to provide training and technical assistance to local, district and state health department infection control and prevention personnel, infection control managers, nurses, hospital epidemiologists and other infection control practitioners.
“As a nation and state, we were really caught flat-footed by SARS-CoV-2 even though scientists had been warning that coronaviruses had the potential to create a global pandemic,” said Suzanne Judd, PhD, co-director of the new center and director of the Lister Hill Center for Health Policy at UAB School of Public Health. “Working together with the ADPH will help us to be ready when a new virus or bacteria threatens the health of Alabamians. We will be better prepared to communicate risks to the public to help prevent future pandemics.”
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