Infection control
Infection control comprises policies and practices that prevent or reduce the spread of infectious agents, especially in healthcare settings.
Standard Precautions: Baseline infection-prevention practices applied to all patients, regardless of suspected or confirmed infection. They establish routine safeguards such as hand hygiene, protective equipment, and safe handling of sharps.
Sterilization: A process that destroys all forms of microbial life, including bacterial spores, on an item or surface. Reusable instruments must be sterilized when they enter sterile tissue or the vascular system.
Pathogen: A biological agent that can cause disease in a host. Infection-control measures aim to prevent pathogens from reaching susceptible hosts.
Healthcare epidemiology: The study of infection patterns, causes, and prevention in healthcare populations and settings. It supplies methods for measuring and improving infection-prevention efforts.
Sterile technique: Procedural practices designed to maintain a field free of viable microorganisms. It is stricter than general infection-control practice and applies to specific sterile procedures.
Transmission-Based Precautions: Additional precautions used for infections spread by contact, droplets, or airborne particles. They add route-specific controls when standard precautions alone are insufficient.
Disinfection: A process that eliminates many or all disease-causing microorganisms on inanimate objects, usually not bacterial spores. Clinical surfaces and equipment require disinfection appropriate to their use and contamination risk.
Transmission of infectious diseases: The spread of an infectious agent between hosts or through a shared environment. Controls are selected to interrupt the relevant route of transmission.
Infection surveillance: The systematic collection and analysis of infection data to guide public-health or healthcare action. Surveillance identifies trends and signals possible failures in prevention.
Public health: The organized effort to protect and improve the health of populations. Infection control focuses on care settings, while public health also addresses transmission across communities.