Infection Control

New CDC guidelines: Current and comprehensive

Briefings on Infection Control, February 1, 2009

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After reading this article, you will be able to:

  • List the new topics included in the CDC’s new disinfection and sterilization guidelines
  • Identify at least five highlights from the guideline recommendations

The CDC issued updated disinfection and sterilization guidelines November 18, 2008, in a comprehensive document that touches on everything from proper cleaning of equipment to severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and bioterrorist agents.

The new guidelines replace those issued in 1985. A lot has changed since the mid-1980s, says Terry Burger, BSN, RN, CIC, CNA, BC, director of IC and prevention at Lehigh Valley Hospital in Allentown, PA. For example, this document adds newly available disinfectants, such as hydrogen peroxide, peracetic acid, or a combination of peracetic acid and hydrogen peroxide, and removes others, such as formaldehyde-alcohol (which was deleted because it is irritating, toxic, and rarely used).

“We were very happy that these were updated, because the previous guideline was really old,” Burger says. Even the draft version of the new guideline had been around for six years, she says.

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