CRE Campaign

The Illinois Department of Public Health is leading the statewide CRE Detect and Protect education campaign to promote practices that prevent carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) infections. CRE are extensively drug-resistant organisms (XDROs) with few antibiotic treatment options that can transfer their resistance to other bacteria. These deadly superbugs have been increasingly detected among patients in Illinois.

As part of the campaign, the Department is working with hospitals, long-term care facilities and laboratories to adopt the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention strategy of detecting CRE and protecting patients through appropriate infection control and prevention measures. The Department is providing educational materials and training on CRE prevention and use of the XDRO registry, which is a tool for sharing patient information across facilities and reporting CRE isolates to the Department. A statewide CRE Task Force comprised of infectious disease and infection prevention experts is helping to guide efforts.

Campaign participants have the opportunity to learn from other health care facilities, laboratories and CRE experts committed to this issue. Preventing the spread of these drug-resistant infections will result in better outcomes for patients and reduced health care costs.

The CRE Detect and Protect Campaign is funded by a Prevention and Public Health Fund award from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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