infectious disease- infection control

what can be done to reduce the number of HAI’s

• handwashing is single most important measure to reduce transmitting pathogens

• disinfection and sterilization

• air filtrations

• use of ultraviolet (uv) light

• isolation of especially infectious patients and wearing ppe

infection prevention and control

• the numerous measures taken to prevent infections from occurring in health care setting

• designed to break various inks in chain of infection

asepsis- without infection

• includes any action taken to prevent infection

  • or breaking the chain of infection

• medical asepsis

• surgical asepsis

medical asepsis

• a clean technique

  • goal is to exclude direct and indirect transfer of pathogens

  • direct: person-person

  • indirect: air, instrument, bedding, fomites

medical aseptic techniques

• frequent and thorough handwashing

• personal grooming

• wearing clean masks, gloves and gowns where appropriate

• proper cleaning supplies and equipment

• disinfection

• proper disposal of needles and sharps, contaminated materials and infectious waste

• sterilization

surgical asepsis

• a sterile technique

  • goal is to exclude all microbes

surgical asepsis cont

• practiced in OR’s L&D and during invasive procedures and require the following

  • surgical scrubbing of hands and fingernails

  • wearing sterile instruments. sutures, dressing and solutions

  • creating a sterile field

  • cleaning and disinfecting of floors walls and all equipment before and after each use

  • maintaining proper ventilation

safety precautions

• healthcare setting not always aware of which patients are infected with a communicable disease pathogen

• to prevent transmission of pathogens:

  • two levels of safety precautions have been developed

    • standard precautions

    • transmission-based precautions

standard precaution

• applied to the care of all patients in all healthcare settings regardless of suspected or confirmed presence of an infectious agent

• prevention between patient and healthcare personnel

• based on principle that all fluids may contain transmissible infectious agents

  • except sweat, non-intact skin excretions and mucous membranes

vaccinations

• since healthcare personnel at risk for vaccine preventable infectious disease “recommended they receive

  • hep b

  • influenza

  • measles. mumps and rubella

  • varicella

  • tetanus, diptheria, pertussis

  • meningococcal

  • covid 19

gloves

• can protect both patient and health care personnel from exposure to infectious materials carried on hands

• gloves should be worn when anticipating contact with potentially infectious material

• hand hygiene- gloves - change/removal - hand washing

N95 respirator

• to prevent inhalation of infectious particles

transmission based precaution

• precautions sed for patients who are known or suspected to be infected with highly transmissible or epidemiologically important pathogens for which additional safety precautions beyond standard precautions are required to interrupt transmission withing healthcare settings

3 types of transmission-based precautions are

• contact and contact enteric precautions

• droplet precautions

• airborne precautions

contact precautions

• contact transmission is the most frequent mode of transmission of HAI’s

• divided into two subgroups

  • direct contact

    • microorganisms from body surface to body surface could be within same pt

  • indirect contact

    • transfer of microbes through a contaminated intermediate object

examples of common conditions and disease requiring contact precautions

• open wounds

• uncontained urine

• diarrhea and unable to self-toilet

• carbapenem resistant Enterobacteriaceae

• MDR- acinetobacter

• cystic fibrosis

• human meta pneumovirus

• respiratory syncytial virus

• other multidrug resistant organisms

airborne infections isolation room

• an AIIR is under negative pressure

• air is evacuated from an AIIR passes through a high efficiency particulate air filter (HEPA)

protective environments

• for pt who are especially vulnerable to infection

• pt with server burns or leukemia, transplant or immunosuppressed, pt receiving radiation treatment leukopenia pt and premature infants

• room is under positive pressure and air entering the room passes through HEPA filters

handling fomites

• transmission of pathogens by fomites can be prevented by observing certain rules

  • use disposable equipment and supplies whenever possible

  • disinfect or sterilize equipment soon after use

  • use individual equipment for each patient

  • use disposable thermometers or thermometers covers