Overview
- The Healthcare Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee (HICPAC), responsible for national infection control guidelines, was terminated effective March 31, 2025, under a federal workforce reduction order.
- Committee members were notified of the decision weeks later during a virtual meeting, with relevant CDC web pages now archived and no longer updated.
- HICPAC was finalizing updated airborne pathogen guidelines, incorporating lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic, when it was disbanded.
- Since its inception in 1991, HICPAC issued 540 recommendations, 90% of which were implemented by the CDC, shaping infection control practices nationwide.
- Health experts and professional societies have expressed concerns that the loss of HICPAC will freeze infection control standards, undermining adaptability to evolving public health threats like drug-resistant pathogens.