Infectious Disease Prevention

Infectious disease prevention and control is a core function of state and territorial public health. This effort is reliant on disease surveillance, effective public health policy, outbreak response, and communication.

ASTHO’s Infectious Disease teams are committed to helping health agencies as they track and respond to new and emerging infectious diseases and implement effective infectious disease programs and policies. They work to strengthen state and territorial capacity to prepare for, detect, and respond to infectious disease threats (e.g., emerging pathogens, vaccine-preventable diseases, healthcare-associated infections, and antimicrobial-resistant organisms). Key efforts include:

• Providing strategic guidance on emerging policy and programmatic issues affecting state and territorial public health infectious disease efforts, including through ASTHO’s Infectious Disease Policy Committee.
• Collaborating with national partners, including the Association of Immunization Managers, the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists, and other key partners to advance shared priorities.
• Leading and facilitating The Council for Outbreak Response: Healthcare-Associated Infections and Antimicrobial-Resistant Pathogens to improve public health and health care outbreak responses.

ASTHO’s Infectious Disease teams also develop vital resources — from blog articles to reports and online courses — detailing the latest policy trends in infectious disease prevention, new outbreaks and recommended actions, innovations in public health preparedness, and more. Explore these and other infectious disease topics in the following resources.