Long COVID Care
During the COVID-19 pandemic, division faculty developed infection control guidelines for UW Health, the William S. Middleton Memorial Veterans Hospital and Wisconsin long-term care facilities. In the aftermath, they’ve also developed clinical practice guidelines and post-acute and chronic COVID-19 care guidelines.
A World Leader in Infection Prevention
Faculty in the Divsion of Infectious Diseases have led the UW Health Infection Prevention program since it began, starting with Dr. Dennis Maki, an early architect of modern hospital epidemiology.
Dr. Nasia Safdar later built the program into a research leader in preventing hospital-associated infections, earning awards from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Partnership in Prevention, the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA) and the Association of Professions in Infection Control (APIC).
Dr. Daniel Shirley (at right) has led the program since 2021. Under his leadership, the UW Health program continues to develop innovative programs and, in 2025, was recognized as a world leader in infection prevention. In 2026, it became a Level 2 Special Pathogen Treatment Center within the National Special Pathogen System, with an award to care for patients with high-consequence infectious diseases.
A Center of Excellence for Antimicrobial Stewardship
Division faculty lead UW Health’s Antimicrobial Stewardship Program, one of only a few in the nation that was named a Center of Excellence for Antimicrobial Stewardship by the Infection Diseases Society of America, and that’s been nationally recognized by the Centers for Disease Control and The Joint Commission for leadership, education and achievement.
Comprehensive Clinical Expertise
Our faculty are experts in the treatment of complex, potentially life-threatening infectious diseases, bacterial infections and unexplained febrile illnesses. We have special interests in infection management for immunologically compromised patients, travel and tropical medicine, parasitic infections and deep fungal infections.
