Objective Two of the National Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) Strategy – 2020 and Beyond promotes a shared responsibility across all One Health sectors to improve how we prevent, reduce and control the spread of infection.
Why is this important?
Strategies to prevent and control infections are important to reduce the spread of infection. They:
- stop the chain of infection
- reduce the need for antimicrobials, such as antibiotics
- reduce resistance developing.
Standard ways to prevent and control infection include:
- hand hygiene
- using personal protective equipment
- handling and disposing of sharps appropriately
- cleaning and disinfecting equipment
- environmental cleaning
- vaccination.
But we use specific transmission-based precautions when there is an outbreak and standard precautions are not enough.
Resistant organisms can spread between animals and people in the community and between people in healthcare facilities. Effective infection prevention and control can reduce the spread of resistant organisms.
View the full details of Objective Two of the National AMR Strategy – 2020 and Beyond, including specific priority areas of action.
What are we doing?
Australia has a good national infection prevention and control program in health care.
Infection prevention and control programs and resources for human health include:
- The National Safety and Quality Health Service (NSQHS) Standards which require all hospitals to have measures in place to prevent and control healthcare associated infection.
- The Australian Guidelines for the Prevention and Control of Infection in Healthcare (2019) which are guidelines based on evidence that help to manage antimicrobial resistant organisms.
- The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners' Infection prevention and control standards (5th edition), which is a manual to help staff working in general practice to implement procedures to prevent infection and to control infection if it happens.
- The National Hand Hygiene Initiative (NHHI) is based on the World Health Organization’s My 5 Moments for Hand Hygiene includes resources for health care workers and the community on how to wash hands properly, and an audit and feedback system.
- The MyHospitals website which allows the public to report cases of Staphylococcus aureus bacteria, also known as ‘golden staph’, and also provides hand hygiene compliance rates for all public hospitals.
Biosecurity guidance and resources for animal health include:
- The website farmbiosecurity.com.au is for farmers and livestock producers which has resources on steps that farmers and livestock producers can take to prevent pests and diseases coming onto their property and to reduce the spread of pests or disease if they do enter their property.
- AUSVETPLAN which covers nationally-agrees approaches for responding to emergency animal disease incidents in Australia. These approaches include movement restrictions and decontamination, which are outlined in manuals and supporting documents.
- The Australian Veterinary Association's (AVA) Guidelines for Veterinary Personal Biosecurity, which is a manual to help animal health professionals to control infections from spreading and explains how to limit the risk of getting a disease from an animal.
- The BIOCHECK Biosecurity Plan, developed by the Australian Cattle Veterinarians (a special interest group of the AVA), which helps producers think about major disease and pest risks and put in place procedures to prevent disease.
Find out more about infection prevention and control for:
- Hospitals
- General practice
- Aged care facilities
- Veterinary practice
- Agriculture and industry
- General public
Find out more about what partners from across Australia are doing to support Objective Two of the National AMR Strategy – 2020 and Beyond.
Share your activity or research project that supports Objective Two of the National AMR Strategy – 2020 and Beyond.