BISMARCK, N.D. (KXNET) — On Wednesday, the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC) had its first in-person conference since the COVID-19 pandemic.

The one-day conference allows healthcare workers from across the nation to meet at the North Dakota Heritage Center in order to learn how to advance their network — as well as how to highlight evidence-based advances in infection prevention.

Speakers spoke on a range of different topics to help healthcare workers create and maintain a clean and safe environment for their patients.

The major takeaway from this conference was that while COVID was the main focus of the medical industry for some time, it’s still important to consider other viruses that could be in their offices.

“RSV, GI, Flu has been significant this year,” explained Infection Prevention Specialist, Kayla Porter, “likely because we have all been staying away from each other. We’ve been doing all these things to prevent COVID, and we weren’t exposed to those viruses and bugs that we were normally exposed to. Now that masks are coming off and the public health emergency is about to expire, we are seeing things come back, bigger and badder.”

The conference also had vendors for attendees to view the latest products, including hand sanitizer pumps.