APIC and IFIC Fireside Chat: Improving Environmental Cleaning in Healthcare in Resource-Limited Settings

Molly Patrick is an Environmental Engineer, working with the International Infection Control Program (IICP) of the Division for Healthcare Quality Promotion at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta Georgia. She began her career at CDC in 2010 working on water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) in humanitarian and public health emergencies. Ms. Patrick joined the international IPC team at CDC in 2017, where she is coordinating environmental infection prevention and control (IPC) activities, including the environmental cleaning portfolio. She is the lead author on the global CDC/ICAN Best Practices for Environmental Cleaning In Healthcare Facilities: In Resource-Limited Settings, and a forthcoming Implementation Toolkit for the Best Practices. In her current role, Ms. Patrick has served as technical reviewer and contributor on several WHO IPC guidelines and implementation manuals, with a focus on the built environment (WASH) and environmental cleaning. She has also contributed to the development of WHO Interim Guidance on WASH, environmental cleaning, personal protective equipment and ventilation for the COVID-19 response. Molly earned her Master of Civil and Environmental Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and her Bachelor of Environmental Engineering and Environmental Science from Dalhousie University and Acadia University in Canada. Prior to working at CDC, she has worked on WASH in communities and healthcare facilities in the Gambia, Guinea Bissau and the Philippines. 

Folasade Ogunsola is a Professor of Clinical Microbiology and Director of the Centre for Infection Control and Patient safety at the College of Medicine University of Lagos, Nigeria. She is the current Chairperson of the Infection Control African Network and has been involved in Infection Control for over 25 years. She has contributed significantly in setting up IPC programs, raising awareness of and building capacity in infection Control and Antimicrobial Resistance in Nigeria and Africa. She is a founding member of the Nigerian Infection Control Association in 1998 and present Chair of the IPC Policy development Committee in Nigeria.  She has been deployed on several occasions for Infection Prevention and Control during outbreaks of Ebola disease and was the team lead for IPC in the Nigeria outbreak. She with her team developed a competency-based course for the training of IPC professionals in Nigeria She is the Chair of the WHO Ebola Virus Guideline Development Group, and a member of the African Task force for the novel Corona virus where she serves on the guidelines and training committees. More recently was involved in validating the Environmental Cleaning toolkit for the ICAN/CDC Best Practices for Environmental Cleaning in Healthcare Facilities in Resource-Limited Settings.