Many hospitals and long-term care facilities in North America currently permit animals
to visit with their patients; however, the development of relevant infection control
and prevention policies has lagged, due in large part to the lack of scientific evidence
regarding risks of patient infection associated with animal interaction. This report
provides standard guidelines for animal-assisted interventions in health care facilities,
taking into account the available evidence.
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Article info
Footnotes
Other Working Group members include Erica Bontovics, MD, CIC, and Sharon Calvin, DVM, MSc, Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care; Nora Boyd, RN, CIC, Bluewater Health, Sarnia, Ontario; Renee Freeman, RN, CIC, and Michael Hawkes, MDCM, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ontario; Cindy Plante-Jenkins, MLT, CIC, Trillium Health Centre, Mississauga, Ontario; Joanne Laalo, RN, CIC, Community and Hospital Infection Control Association of Canada; Robert Franklin, DVM, Delta Society; Carol Jones, Jan Vallentin, and Don Lapierre, St John Ambulance Therapy Dogs; Judy Sauvé and Nancy Trus, Therapeutic Paws of Canada; David Waltner-Toews, DVM, PhD, University of Guelph, Ontario; and Richard Reid-Smith, DVM, DVSc and Rita Finley, MSc, Public Health Agency of Canada.
The Working Group meeting was sponsored by the Public Health Agency of Canada and the Centre for Public Health and Zoonoses, University of Guelph.
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© 2008 Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
