Infection control Flashcards
What are the main causes of antibiotic resistance?
Over prescription of antibiotic
Patient not finishing entire course
Poor infection control in healthcare settings
Poor hygiene & sanitatio
How does antibiotics resistance develop?
- Random mutation in DNA of individual bacterial cells.
- Mutation protects the bacterial cell from the effects of the antibiotic - becomes antibiotic resistant.
- Bacteria w/out the mutation die when the antibiotic is present
- Antibiotic resistant bacteria survive & reproduce w/ less competition from non-resistant bacterial strains.
- Genes for antibiotic resistance are passed to the offspring.
- Over time, whole population of bacteria becomes antibiotic resistant- antibiotic resistant bacteria are best suited to their environment.
How to prevent antibiotic resistance?
A
Take them as prescribed
Don’t take other peoples
Finish the full course
Don’t take for virus
High hospital hygiene
Viral infections that are spread by mosquitoes?
Yellow fever
Zika
Dengue fever
Methods to control moquitor-borne viral infections & how are these effective?
Remove stagnant water-Removes area for mosquito to reproduce & Interferes w/ normal lifecycle
Mosquito nets Acts as a barrier to prevent mosquitoes biting patient
Use of insecticides- Kills adult mosquitoes - Toxic to mosquitoes
environment
Infection control in clinical setting & staff?
- Isolation
- Patient screening e.g. STI screening
- Staff:
- Education
- Hand hygiene- hand washing
- Sharps management & disposal
- Use of PPE- masks, gloves, gowns
- Immunisation & vaccinations
- Screening health workers for disease- TB, Hep B, MRSA
- Use of condoms to prevent STI
- Aseptic techniques - Handling, storage & disposal of clinical waste
- Containment & safe removal of spilled blood & body fluids
- Sterilisation & disinfection of equipment
- Ventilated air
- Food hygiene
How to reduce post-operative infections?
Aseptic tehcnique- PPE, hand washing,
Ventilation
Antibiotic prophylaxis
Sterilised equipment
Limiting number of people present during surgery
What is healthcare acquired infections? Give 4 examples
Infection acquired more than 72 hours after admission
E.g. MRSA, clostridium dificile, ESBL
Common infections in hospital?
- MRSA,
- C.difficile
- Norovirus
Main transmission routes of bacteria & viruses in hospital & methods of prevention
Direct contact- people to people
Indirect person to person contact
Animals
Environment
NOTE- more info in public health LO
How to reduce animal to person spread occur?
-Reduce infection in animals by putting them in hygienic environments
- pasteurize milk
- Hand washing & PPE.
- Improve food handling to reduce chance of food poisoning.
- Cull infected animals to prevent spread
How to reduce environment to person spread?
-enforce good practice w/ built environment so infection spread won’t happen (good sanitation like good drinking water)
-Encourage safe activities in environment that won’t lead to any spread of infection
- modify environment- using water treatment to prevent contamination of water
Examples of healthcare associated infections? How to prevent their spread?
MRSA
- associated w/ poor hygiene & indwelling catheters
- hand washing important & PPE
Clostridium difficile
- associated w/ prolonged antibiotic usage, use of protein pump inhibitors & poor hygiene
- don’t overprescribe antibiotics, don’t overuse protein pump inhibitors & wash hands.
Extended Spectrum Beta-Lactamase (ESBL)
- associated w/ urinary catheters- prevented using correct PPE for catheter usage.
Response to infection?
-Surveillance to detect organism outbreaks & antimicrobial resistance
- Isolation
- Vector control
- Vaccination- active or passive- herd immunity
- offer prophylaxis (treatment e.g. antibiotics or action taken to prevent)
Definition of reservoir?
any person, living organism or environment in which the infectious agent lives & replicates & on which infectious agent is dependent for it survival.
What are human reservoirs?
- those w/ infection can act as reservoir
- E.g. Staph.aureus, C.difficile
- To act as reservoir, infection caused must be long-lasting in at least a portion of those affected to enable transmission (TB, STI)
- Humans only reservoirs to some infections (measles)
What are animal reservoirs?
Zoonosis- a disease of infection that is naturally transmissible from vertebrate animals to humans
- Infected animals may be asymptomatic
- Zoonotic agents may be transmitted via any routers (mentioned below)
- Primary infection can be transmitted onward between humans- causing secondary disease
HIV/AIDS, Ebola, SARS all thought to have emerged from animal hosts
What are environmental reservoirs?
- Many infective pathogens are acquired from environmental source.
- Some are maintained in human or animal reservoir- environment acts only as a conduit for infection
- Fungal agents e4.g. histoplasmosis live & multiply in soil
What are the modes of transmission of infection?
Direct contact- people to people
Indirect person to person contact
Animals
Environment
Examples of direct contact?
- Direct
- Respiratory droplets e.g. flu, covid-19
- Aerosol transmission - smaller particles = stay around in air e.g. TB, Covi-19?
- Faecal-oral spread e.g. dysentry
- Close contact e.g. Meningcococcal menigitis
- Sex e.g. Gonorrhoea
Examples of indirect contact?
- Food borne e.g. staphylcoccocal food poisoning
- Waterborne e.g. cryptosporidium
- Fomites e.g. door handles
- Sharing needles e.g HIV, Hep B
- Vector-borne e.g. Malaria (mosquitos)
examples of animal transmission?
- Livestock - from food e.g. salmonella, E coli
- Domestic pets - direct e.g. campylobacter or indirect e.g. faecal contamination in soil e.g Toxocariasis
- Wild animals e.g. Lymes disease from tics
Example of environment transmission?
- Build environemnt e.g. legionnaires disease - stagnant water in taps
- Natural environment e.g. Estuary syndrome, Naegleria meningitis
What can we do to prevent emergent diseases?
Health services:
- Training - for health professionals e.h. regular hand washing sessions & cleaning of equipment.
- Good communication e.g giving out leaflets or posters to public providing info on how to avoid catching a disease & therefore controlling it.
- Surveillance - data is retrieved & analysed from different sources to look at trends of infectious organisms that could grow & be a threat e.g. (antibiotic resistant bacteria).
- Epidemiology to understand spread of a pathogen & hence prepare protective measures.
General Public:
- Trade restrictions to avoid interacting w/ wild animals that act as reservoirs for disease.
- Travel restrictions to avoid bringing back diseases from other countries.
- general society should also assist health services by following guidance on how to stop spread of diseases.
