BIOL122 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Waste Heat, Adipose Tissue, Iodine
Prevention and control of infection:
Who is at risk:
• Health care workers, administrators, patients, carers, visitors, etc.
What makes someone susceptible?
- Breaches in skin
- Low white blood cells
- Age (very young or very old)
- Disease/ conditions (AIDS, cancer, etc.)
- Medication/ other drugs
Bacterial growth requirements: To stop microbes growing, remove their
preferred environment:
- temperature
- pH
- water
- oxygen
- nutrients
- time
- competition
Modes of transmission:
• Contact transmission
- Direct contact
- Indirect contact
- Droplet transmission
• Common vehicle transmission
- Airborne transmission
- Water- bone transmission
- Food- bone transmission
• Transmission via vectors
- Mechanical transmission
- Biological transmission
Stop the spread:
• Prevent them from leaving, travelling or entering
• Stop them leaving a source/ reservoir
- Masks
- Isolation
- Handwashing
- Coverings
• Stop them entering a host
- Protect portals of entry
- Avoid infected people, coverings, integrity of mucosa/ skin
- (susceptibility) i.e., immunisations
Source/ reservoir: Place where microbes live/ multiply
Can be:
• Other patients
- Secretions, respiratory droplets, infections, open wounds
• Patients own flora
- Skin, gut
• Health care
- Staff (ill or healthy carrier)
• Environment
- Gram +vee cocci like it dry or moisture
Prevention:
• See/ identify the problem
• Determine what to do
• Then carry out precautions necessary to prevent infection from spreading
and causing disease
Standard Precautions that must be used in the handling of:
• Blood
• All other body fluids/ substances regardless of whether they contain visible
blood
• Non- intact skin
• Mucous membranes
Standard precautions:
- Hand hygiene before and after all patient contact
- PPE
- Safe usage and disposal of sharps
- Proper waste management
- Respiratory hygiene and cough etiquette
- Appropriate handling of linen.
Transmission- based precautions
• In addition to standard precautions
• Tailored according to the mode of transmission
Reducing Microbes:
• Sterilisation: kills all life
• Disinfection/ sanitation: reduces microbes to a safe level
• Cleaning: remove visible surface material
Sterilisation/ Disinfection techniques:
Chemical agents:
- Bacterial
- Soap detergents
- Chlorine
- Iodine
- Hydrogen peroxide
Physical:
- Dry heat
- Boiling
- Freezing
- Filtration
Document Summary
Who is at risk: health care workers, administrators, patients, carers, visitors, etc. Bacterial growth requirements: to stop microbes growing, remove their preferred environment: temperature. Food- bone transmission: transmission via vectors. Stop the spread: prevent them from leaving, travelling or entering, stop them leaving a source/ reservoir. Coverings: stop them entering a host. Avoid infected people, coverings, integrity of mucosa/ skin (susceptibility) i. e. , immunisations. Secretions, respiratory droplets, infections, open wounds: patients own flora. Staff (ill or healthy carrier: environment. Gram +vee cocci like it dry or moisture. Prevention: see/ identify the problem, determine what to do, then carry out precautions necessary to prevent infection from spreading and causing disease. Standard precautions that must be used in the handling of: blood, all other body fluids/ substances regardless of whether they contain visible blood, non- intact skin, mucous membranes. Hand hygiene before and after all patient contact. In addition to standard precautions: tailored according to the mode of transmission.
