The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is calling for additional safety and effectiveness data for certain ingredients in antiseptic products that are used in healthcare facilities, and Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology and the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America support the call, according to a release.
Here are five key notes on FDA's call for more information, and the support it is receiving:
1. Healthcare antiseptics include handwashes, rubs and patient preoperative skin preparations, including pre-injection preparations.
2. Alcohol and iodines are the common active ingredients in these antiseptics.
3. Data raises concerns surrounding the effects of human exposure to some healthcare antiseptic ingredients, according to an FDA release.
4. The FDA is not calling for any products to be removed from the market, but instead is calling for a long-term study on the effects of daily exposure to the antiseptics.
5. SHEA and APIC note healthcare-associated infections are associated with 75,000 American deaths annually.
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