Disease Prevention

Contact transmission: Most common mode of infection transmission

Direct transmission:
- transfer of microorganisms
- directly from an infected person too someone else.

Indirect transmission:
- an object or person
- transfers microorganism from infected person to new host

Droplet transmission

- a form of contact transmission
- Involves transfer of small droplets
- Released when an infected person: Coughs, sneeze, talk's during some medical procedures

Airborne transmission

- Microorganisms are carried by the air
- Remains in the air
- Dispersed over long periods

Antisepsis: Prevents or inhibits growth of pathogenic organisms.
- not effective attacking spores, viruses.

Disinfection: Destroys or kills pathogenic organisms
- Not always effective attacking spores, viruses.

Sterilization: Destroy all microorganism
- Both pathogenic and nonpathogenic

Asepsis information

Antiseptics: chemicals that kill microorganisms on living skin or mucous membranes.

Disinfectants: Chemical that kill microorganisms on inanimate objects

Asepsis: is the freedom from disease causing microorganisms

Asepsis: absence of disease-producing microorganisms, pathogens

Sterile:
- free from all organisms
- pathogens and nonpathogenic
- aswell as spores, viruses

Contaminated: Organisms and pathogens are present

Medical Asepsis

- Practices reduce the number of pathogens
- Prevents their spread
- Called clean technique

- Objects are known as clean or dirty (Contaminated)

Includes:
- Hand hygiene
- Barrier techniques
- Maintaining a clean environment

Surgical Asepsis (Sterile technique)

- Actions that keep equipment and supplies free of all microorganisms

- Uses all procedures including sterilization areas of the body
- Also minor operations or injections

- Object is either sterile or not
- If you are unsure, then it is not
- Only touch sterile to sterile

Decontamination-Cleaning-Sterilization (DCS)

Decontamination: Soaking instruments in a disinfectant

Cleaning:
- Use the right tools to scrub the equipment
Objective: remove organic material on the equipment

Sterilization, High-level disinfection:
- Objective: Kill all microorganisms

Objective: Making instruments to handle, decreasing pathogen virulence.
- Prevent organic material from sticking to the equipment

Aseptic technique:
- procedures use to decrease, possibility of transferring
- Contaminated materials from one place to another

Ways contamination can affect a healthcare worker:
- Healthcare workers skin is pierced, cut by contaminated needles, sharp instruments.
- Fluids are splashed on the mucous membranes, of the healthcare worker. (e.g. eyes, nose, mouth
- Gets through the skin by cuts, scratches, rashes, acne, chapped skin, fungal infection.

Standard precautions

Transmission-based precautions (also called isolation precautions)
- Contact precautions
- Droplet precautions
- Airborne preactions

Standard precaution- Wash hands, Wear gloves, Wear gown, etc.

Airborne precaution

Before care: Private room and closed room, monitored negative air pressure, frequent air exchanges, high-efficiency filtration.

During care: Limit transport of patients/resident, essential purposes only, patients residents must wear mask appropriate for disease.

After care: Bag linen to prevent contamination of self, the environment, or outside bag.

Droplet precaution

Before care: Private room, maintaining 3 feet of space between patients/residents and the visitors.

During care: Limit transport of patients/resident, essential purpose only, patients residents must wear mask appropriate for disease.

After care: Bag linen to prevent contamination of self, the environment, or outside.

Contact precaution

Before care: Private room.

During care: Limit transport of patients/resident, essential purpose only, patients residents must wear mask appropriate for disease.

After care: Bag linen to prevent contamination of self, the environment, or outside.

Meaning:
- Isolation precautions vary from one facility to another
- Depends, the type of units provided for the isolated patients
- Most facilities convert a regular patient room into an isolation room
- some facilities use special room isolation units (two)
- Basic principles maintaining transmission, isolation are the same regardless of the facility

Regulations that require all health care facility employers to follow:
- Need a plan to make sure exposure to bloodborne pathogens
- Identify employees that have occupational exposure to body fluids
- Enforce rules, areas that can potentially contaminated by body fluids.
- Should be confidential medical evaluation and follow-up
- Should be training about regulations and all potential biohazards

- 600,000-800,000 needlesticks occur each year
- Identify, use effective, safer medical devices
- Bring in changes in annual update, exposure control plan
- solicit in put from nonmangerial
- employees who are responsible for direct patient care
- Corporate changes, annual update, exposure control plan