Universal Precaution

Nosocomial Infections

Also known as Health-Care Associated Infections (HAIs) or Hospital-Acquired Infections, these are infections acquired in the course of medical care within acute care hospitals, extended care facilities, outpatient clinics, or behavioral health institutions.

Iatrogenic Infection

A specific type of nosocomial infection that results from a particular treatment or therapeutic procedure.

Exogenous Infection

An infection or disease that originates outside the body, occurring when a pathogen comes from another source or a commensal organism enters an improper location.

Endogenous Infection

An infection or disease that originates within the body, often occurring when normal bacterial flora enter a sterile area such as the brain or muscle.

Microorganism

Living organisms too small to be seen with the naked eye that belong to the "Protista Kingdom," including bacteria, fungi, protozoa, helminths, viruses, and prions.

Protists

Simple eukaryotic organisms that are neither plants, animals, nor fungi.

Prokaryotic Cell

Organisms that lack membrane-bound organelles but possess plasma membranes, cytoplasm, ribosomes, a cell wall, and DNA.

Eukaryotic Cell

Organisms whose cells contain a nucleus enclosed within a nuclear envelope.

Normal Microbial Flora

Microorganisms that live on or inside the body without causing disease, aiding in skin preservation, digestion, and protection against harmful organisms.

Pathogens

Microorganisms specifically capable of causing infections and diseases.

Bacteria

Colorless, minute, one-celled organisms with a typical nucleus containing both DNA and RNA, classified by shapes such as cocci, bacilli, or spirilla.

Fungi

Cells requiring an aerobic environment to live and reproduce, existing as either single-celled yeasts or multicellular molds.

Parasites

Organisms that live on or in a host organism at the host's expense, classified as protozoa or helminths.

Protozoa

Complex, often parasitic, single-celled microorganisms that generally exist as free-living organisms and can be motile or nonmotile.

Helminths

Parasitic worms, such as flatworms and roundworms, that survive by feeding on a living host for nourishment and protection.

Viruses

The smallest known microorganisms to produce disease in humans; they cannot survive independently and contain either DNA or RNA, but never both.

Prions

Smallest and least understood microbes consisting of a protein without DNA or RNA, capable of transforming healthy proteins in nerve cells into more prions.

Pathogenicity

The ability of a causative organism to cause disease.

Virulence

The ability of a causative organism to grow and multiply with speed.

Invasiveness

The ability of an organism to enter tissues.

Specificity

The characteristic attraction of an organism to a particular host.

Reservoir

An environment, such as a human, animal, plant, or water, in which pathogenic microbes can live and multiply.

Indirect Contact

The transfer of pathogenic microbes by touching contaminated objects, known as fomites, such as instruments or clothing.

Droplet Contact

Contact with infectious secretions from the conjunctiva, nose, or mouth of a host as they cough, sneeze, or talk.

Vehicles

Routes of transmission that include contaminated food, water, drugs, or blood.

Airborne Route

Residue from evaporated droplets or dust particles suspended in the air for long periods that can be inhaled by a susceptible host.

Vectors

Insect or animal carriers that deposit diseased microbes into a human host by stinging or biting.

Direct Contact

Touching a person or animal with a disease, or their bodily fluids, through physical actions like kissing or sexual intercourse.

Antigens

Foreign bodies or unrecognizable organic substances that invade the body and induce the production of antibodies.

Antibodies

Protein substances produced by B cells (white blood cells) to react to specific invaders.

The Joint Commission

An organization that sets requirements for hospital safety, infection control practices, and patient care standards for accreditation.

Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA)

A federal agency that protects workers and students from work-related injuries and enforces workplace safety regulations.

Center For Disease Control & Prevention (CDC)

An institution that performs research, compiles statistical data on infectious diseases, and develops immunization guidelines.

World Health Organization (WHO)

A UN agency that works to reduce famine and disease globally by compiling reports on infectious diseases from all countries.

Standard Precaution (Tier 1)

Infection control practices used at all times for all patients in all healthcare settings to prevent the daily spread of infection.

Transmission-Based Precaution (Tier 2)

Category-specific guidelines designed to place a barrier against the spread of highly infectious diseases between infected persons and their caregivers.

Colonization

The presence of microorganisms on the skin or body surface of an individual who does not show symptoms of the disease