Becker's Clinical Quality & Infection Control

6 INFECTION CONTROL Don't let the term fool you: 'Endemic' can be dangerous By Mackenzie Bean and Gabrielle Masson T he word "endemic" is one of the most misused of the pandemic, contributing to a dangerous complacency about COVID- 19's potential future toll, Aris Katzourakis, PhD, professor of evolution and genomics at St. Hilda's College Oxford in the U.K., wrote in a Jan. 24 op-ed published in Nature. e CDC defines a pandemic as "an event in which a disease spreads across several countries and affects a large number of people." In con- trast, an endemic is the "constant presence and/ or usual prevalence of a disease or infectious agent within a geographic area." An endemic can be wide-reaching and deadly, Dr. Katzourakis wrote, citing examples such as malaria and tuberculosis. He added that the "endemic" classification doesn't mean a return to "normal." "ere is a widespread, rosy misconception that viruses evolve over time to become more benign," Dr. Katzourakis wrote. "is is not the case: there is no predestined evolutionary outcome for a virus to become more benign, especially ones, such as SARS-CoV-2, in which most transmission happens before the virus causes severe disease." An "endemic" classification gives no indication of duration, case rates, severity, vulnerability or death rates, according to the professor, who added that health policies and behavior deter- mine what form endemic COVID-19 takes. e "lazy optimism" about endemic COVID-19 must be replaced with more realistic projec- tions on future levels of death, disability and illness, according to Dr. Katzourakis. e world must recognize the risk for new variants to emerge when considering reduction targets and invest in vaccines to protect against a broader range of variants, among other actions, he said. "inking that endemicity is both mild and inevitable is more than wrong — it is danger- ous. It sets humanity up for many more years of disease, including unpredictable waves of outbreaks," he concluded. "It is more produc- tive to consider how bad things could get if we keep giving the virus opportunities to outwit us. en we might do more to ensure that this does not happen." n APIC calls for better infection prevention programs as HAIs rise By Gabrielle Masson W ith new metrics indicating rising healthcare-associated infections amid the pandemic, the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology is calling on healthcare organizations to assess infection prevention capacity and strengthen prevention programs. "The current pandemic illustrates that our healthcare facilities are not where they need to be in terms of infection prevention and patient safety," APIC President Linda Dickey, RN, said in a Feb. 15 news release. "Facility-wide infection prevention programs are critical and require adequately staffed, trained, and resourced infection prevention and control departments. We must bolster our infection prevention and control staff capacity in our system of healthcare to simultaneously manage HAIs and future pandemics." "This is not the time to ask infection prevention teams to do more with less," she continued. APIC is calling on federal and state governments to provide funding for healthcare facilities to ensure adequate surge capacity so infection prevention and control measures can endure when stressed. To help healthcare facilities assess infection prevention capacity, APIC is launch- ing a campaign called HAI Fast Forward: Accelerating HAI Prevention, which will include webinars and other resources to help reduce HAIs. "We can't let the lessons learned from COVID-19 go to waste," Ms. Dickey said. "Building stronger infection prevention programs throughout healthcare will not only improve our ability to protect the public during future pandemics but will simultaneously improve patient safety." n Flu vaccination trends in US: 4 stats to know By Mackenzie Bean T he nation's flu vaccination rate has increased slightly over the past two seasons, though this growth has been slower than in past years, likely because of pandemic disruptions, a Feb. 7 report from ValuePenguin found. The financial research and analysis website analyzed CDC data on seasonal flu vaccination rates for the 2019-20 and 2020-21 flu seasons. Four report findings: 1. Last flu season, 52.1 percent of eligible Americans got a flu shot, up slightly from 51.8 in the 2019-20 season. For context, this figure sat at 43 percent for the 2010-11 flu season. 2. Overall, 27 states saw vaccination rates increase between the 2019-20 and 2020-21 flu seasons, with Mas- sachusetts, Illinois and Rhode Island reporting the largest jumps. 3. New England states had the highest flu vaccination rates, while Southern states had the lowest during the 2020-21 flu season. This rate was highest in Massachusetts (66.5 percent) and lowest in Florida (41.7 percent). 4. People ages 65 and older were the most vaccinated age group last flu season, surpassing children under 5, who held the top spot in 2019-20. n

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