• Promoting infection control policy reform by assisting ministries of health as they review existing regulations and develop new protocols that facilitate implementation of effective, evidence-based hospital infection control programs;
  
  
• Building both human resource and training capacity in the region by establishing model Infection Control Training Centers;
  
  
• Strengthening the expertise of national and regional epidemiological agencies by introducing standardized protocols for hospital infection control surveys based on the International Hospital Infection Prevention and Quality Assessment Program; and
  
  
• Improving the quality of surveillance, patient care practices, and clinical outcomes by upgrading the level of microbiology laboratory services and facilitating the appropriate use of antibiotics.

In several countries where AIHA partnerships selected infection control as a priority activity, their efforts coincided with—and in many cases catalyzed—regulatory changes at both regional and national levels. In 1993, for example, the Russian Ministry of Health issued the first mandate for the formal establishment of a hospital-based infection control program that included the creation of physician-nurse hospital epidemiology teams to oversee related policies and practices at their institutions. Following the Russian example, other countries of the former Soviet Union have also attempted to institutionalize hospital infection control.

All AIHA partnerships—particularly those that focus on clinical care—address infection control in some manner. The following partnerships have elected to participate in our Infection Control Initiative: