Univ. of South Florida receives CDC funding to establish infection control center

by | Jul 26, 2022



  • The University of South Florida (USF) received funding from the Center for Disease Control (CDC) to develop and operate an infection control resource center 
  • USF will receive $500,000 in the first year of the partnership but anticipates increased monetary contributions over the next four years 
  • The center will primarily be used by emergency responders as a base for task management
  • USF has made a push to become a leading medical education center in the state. In recent months, the school has formed partnerships with Moffitt Cancer Center, Tampa General Hospital, and now the CDC

 

The University of South Florida’s College of Public Health (COPH) is set to receive funding from the Center for Disease Control (CDC) in order to develop an infection control resource center for emergency responders.

According to a CDC collaboration agreement, USF will work with the agency over the course of the next five years to construct and manage the center. The CDC will provide the college with roughly $500,000 this year, with the possibility of receiving significantly more money each of the next four years.

“The overall purpose of the project is to develop a multi-modal approach to deliver infection prevention and control (IPC) education to emergency responders. The center will serve as a hub for recruitment, dissemination, referral, and subject matter consultation,” said COPH Director Dr. Christine McGuire-Wolfe.

The moment is appropriate, according to McGuire-Wolfe, to establish a center for researching infection control procedures for emergency responders, given the rise in the frequency of healthcare-associated illnesses, particularly in underprivileged groups.

USF is shifting to become a statewide-leading university force in medicine. In June, the school formed a partnership with Moffitt Cancer Center that will cover tuition and fees will be paid for some of the University of South Florida College of Nursing (USFCON) accelerated students.

The program includes comprehensive cost coverage for the entire program under the condition that students who apply must make a commitment to spend two years of employment at Moffitt after graduation. The partnership’s aim is to bridge the academic-practice gap by blending on-the-job training for student nurses with a structured transition program to the role of the professional nurse.

“We are so happy to be in this partnership with USF. These accelerated students will be a way for us to continue to build our pipeline of nurses for the future.  It has been a great relationship working with the Dean and her faculty,” said Jane Fusilero, Moffitt’s chief nursing officer.

USF is among the top public institutions, ranked in the top 100 public universities nationwide, and is one of the highest recipients in Florida of National Institute of Health funding. Last year USF received funds of more than $69.9 million through 2025 to continue the follow-up of study participants in The Environmental Determinants of Diabetes in The Young (TEDDY) consortium. TEDDY is the largest multicenter prospective study of young children with genetic susceptibility to type 1 diabetes.

Moreover, in November USF received $1 million from Reliance Medical Centers to support programs focused on geriatric health care in the College of Behavioral and Community Sciences and USF Health.

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