control of infectious disease in healthcare

Question 1

What is infection control?

Answer 1

Policies and procedures put in place to minimise and control the spread of infections in healthcare settings

Question 2

What are the 6 stages of the spread of infection?

Answer 2

1. causative agent: pathogenic organism
2. reservoir/ source
3. means of exit: way out of the body
4. mode of transmission: method of spread
5. portal of entry: way into the body
6. person at risk

Question 3

What are the 4 ways we can break the chain of infection?

Answer 3

1. disease surveillance: outbreak investigation and management
2. development and implementation of policies and procedures: isolation precaution policies
3. intervening to prevent disease transmission: standard infection control procedures
4. collaborating with other programmes

Question 4

What is disease surveillance?

Answer 4

It assesses frequency and distribution of infection to inform control, treatment and prevention efforts. Ran by PHE. There are 3 layers: data collectors (collected data is given to surveillance experts), surveillance experts (data is analysed to inform responses), sponsors (surveillance, knowledge and evidence inform policies ensuring a suitable directive aligned with legislation)

Question 5

What are the types of surveillance?

Answer 5

Passive: gathers disease data from all potential reporting healthcare providers
Active: used when complete reporting is required. Used in uncommon diseases
Sentinel: focuses on gathering data from a selected group of health workers, offering targeted attention from authorities rather than collecting data from all healthcare workers
Syndromic: new. Monitors trends in anonymous reports of symptoms rather than specific diagnosis to inform public health services

Question 6

Who are policies and procedures governed by?

Answer 6

Department of health and social care, PHE, NHS, UK national health security agency

Question 7

Why is intervening to prevent disease transmission important?

Answer 7

it minimises spread

Question 8

What two categories is preventing transmission divided into?

Answer 8

Vertical: disease-forced and involve preventive, diagnostic and treatment measures. Designed to address a specific pathogen or a narrow group of related pathogens. Eg. Vaccinations, sexual health campaigns, TB control programmes

Horizontal: strategies that focus on strengthening health systems rather than specific diseases eg. Antibiotic stewardship, standard infectious control precautions eg. Hand hygiene, PPE, respiratory and cough hygiene, transmission precautions