In: Nursing
Infection Control
Discuss what diseases have increased public awareness of infection control over the past few years? List three diseases that should concern health care workers today working in the hospital setting. ( sterile processing) must be a 230-word discussion CDC
Before going into the topic, lets have a look how people can get infected with infectious diseases. In general there are three main components that need to interact with each other for an infectious disease to occur. This is called an Epidemiological triad. The organism that causes the disease is called the agent and it can be bacteria, virus or fungi. The one who is the target of the disease is called the host. The third component is the environment which is the surroundings and the condition that are external to the hosts that allows the disease to be transmitted. Now, the most important factor in between these is the transmission pathway that allows the infection to spread. These pathways can be direct or indirect. In direct transmission the organism is transmitted directly to the person through touch, intercourse, coughing or sneezing. In the hospital setting, indirect transmission is what causes the concern where the infection is transmitted through an intermediate like contaminated equipments, objects or food or water. Over the past few years infectious pathogens like HIV (Human immunodeficiency virus), TB (Tuberculosis) and HBV (Hepatitis B virus) have been a huge problem among population and significantly increased the public awareness of infection control. There are a number of diseases that should concern health care workers today working in the hospital setting. Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) is one such disease that have shown significant vulnerability for health workers. TB is another such occupational infectious disease due to needlestick injuries among healthcare personals. Now the most recent and most deadly virus that had a tremendous outbreak among population as well as within hospital setting is COVID-19. So itcan be said that in order to prevent the spread of such deadly diseases and for proper infection control, close disease surveillance is mandatory in healthcare settings.