Virginia Infection Prevention & Control Training Alliance (VIPTA)

vipta logo

VIPTA is a statewide infection prevention and control education collaborative, led by the Virginia Healthcare-Associated Infections Advisory Group.  Through partnership, VIPTA curates IPC resources for Virginia’s healthcare, congregate care, and public health settings.

More about VIPTA

Upcoming Events

View Calendar
Virginia Department of Health flu vaccine promotion that states the best time to get your flu shot is now.

Ready Before the Rush: Respiratory Disease Season Resources

Respiratory disease season is on the way. October is a great time to get prevention messages in front of staff, patients, and residents before respiratory illness activity picks up.

Check out the Guidance, Recommendations, & Regulatory Updates section for new respiratory disease season updates. Learn what’s new for sick or exposed healthcare workers and how to prevent  the spread of respiratory diseases at your workplace.

Then, grab a few ready-to-use training tools to help your team put prevention into action.

What to Expect: 

Put it into Action: 

  • Start early. Add a reminder to your next staff huddle. Post one in a waiting area.
  • Keep it quick. Show a short video at a meeting.
  • Mix it up. Share a new message each week. Cover vaccines, healthy habits, symptoms, or treatment.
  • Know what’s going around. Check Virginia respiratory disease data. Share key updates with your team.

Start now and keep it simple. You’ll have tools ready when you need them.

Target Audience: Foundational & Intermediate IPC Education Level

Guidance, Recommendations, & Regulatory Updates

VIPTA members track guidance and regulation resources to share source documents that guide infection prevention and control practices for public health staff and clinical and non-clinical healthcare personnel.

The date of the regulation or guidance update is included in each post.  Please check linked content to be sure it is the most up to date and recommended practice.

CDC: Conjunctivitis (09/11/2026)
CDC
Any Practice Setting
The CDC recommends excluding healthcare personnel with suspected or confirmed infectious conjunctivitis, including epidemic keratoconjunctivitis (EKC), from work for the duration of their symptoms. These recommendations emphasize strict hand hygiene, appropriate cleaning and disinfection of surfaces and shared medical equipment, and prompt identification and management of cases to prevent transmission and healthcare-associated outbreaks.
CDC: Viral Respiratory Infections (09/11/2026)
CDC
Any Practice Setting
The CDC provides updated recommendations for managing healthcare personnel exposed to or infected with viral respiratory infections, including work restrictions, symptom monitoring, and source control. Asymptomatic exposed personnel may continue working with source control through at least five days after their last exposure, while infected personnel should be excluded from work for at least three days and meet additional symptom-based return-to-work criteria, followed by source control through at least day seven.
CDC: Preventing Respiratory Infections in the Workplace (08/28/2026)
CDC
Any Practice Setting
The CDC provides recommendations to help employers prevent and respond to respiratory infections in the workplace through improved ventilation, engineering controls, environmental cleaning and disinfection, and policies that encourage sick employees to stay home.  These recommendations also emphasize using respiratory illness surveillance data to inform workplace prevention strategies, including masking and remote work, to reduce transmission and protect employee health.

Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA)

SHEA

Infection Prevention and Control of Candida auris in Pediatric Settings (6/23/2026) The guidance recommends identifying at-risk pediatric patients through targeted screening, using appropriate isolation and room-placement precautions, and coordinating closely with infection prevention and public health partners when Candida auris is suspected or confirmed. It also emphasizes prevention through meticulous hand hygiene, effective environmental cleaning and disinfection, and careful...

Spotlight on Lake Taylor Transitional Care Hospital

This month, we’re highlighting Lake Taylor Transitional Care Hospital in Norfolk, VA—a 296‑bed facility offering multiple levels of care, including skilled nursing rehabilitation, long‑term care, an adult ventilator unit, and a 25‑bed pediatric unit caring for medically complex children who often require ventilators, tracheostomies, feeding tubes, and continuous monitoring. 

When a pediatric patient transferred to an acute‑care hospital for a respiratory infection and grew carbapenem‑resistant Acinetobacter baumannii (CRAB) in Spring of 2025, Lake Taylor quickly identified a second child in their own facility with the same organism. In response, the team launched unit‑wide point prevalence testing every two weeks. Over seven rounds, six asymptomatic children tested positive. All were promptly cohorted to reduce transmission risk.

The facility conducted a thorough review of hand hygiene practices, signage, and supply placement. They introduced ATP testing to validate environmental cleaning and switched to a disinfectant with a shorter contact time to improve compliance. According to Infection Preventionist, Carol Evans and VP of Patient Services, Karen Wilhelm, these changes strengthened staff confidence and consistency.

Collaboration with the Virginia Department of Health and the CDC was central to their success. Leadership remained deeply engaged, implementing recommendations swiftly. The team at Lake Taylor spoke highly of the mentorship they received from VDH throughout the process, and Devonne Winston from VDH, who nominated the Lake Taylor team for this month’s Cheers for Peers, says “They led by example” of the leadership team.

On October 17, Lake Taylor hosted a highly successful education event with 106 participants from across the facility, recognizing that this education was important in the adult units as well. Staff practiced hand hygiene using GloGerm, completed PPE donning and doffing demonstrations, learned about multiple MDROs, and participated in an environmental cleaning station.

Kudos to the Lake Taylor team for their rapid, coordinated response and commitment to protecting patients throughout the facility.

✨Check out the McKnight Prize for Healthcare Outbreak Heroes – a great way to cheer on a peer nationally!

IPC Education & Training Library

Search the VIPTA library of curated infection prevention and control (IPC) education and training resources. The IPC Education & Training Resource Library includes state and national resources related to healthcare-associated infections, antimicrobial resistance and/or IPC. Visit the VIPTA FAQ page to learn more about VIPTA library content.

 

Connect With VIPTA