INFECTION PREVENTION AND CONTROL

Infection control is the discipline concerned with prevention nosocomial or healthcare-associated infection, a practical(rather than academic) sub-discipline of epidemiology. It is an essential, though often unrecognized under supported, part of the infrastructure of health care. Infection control and hospital epidemiology are akin to public health practice, practice within the confines of a particular health-care delivery system rather than redirected at society as a whole. infection control addresses factors related to spread of infection within the health care setting (whether patient to patient, from patient to staff and from staff to patient, or among staff), including prevention (via hand hygiene/hand washing, cleaning/disinfection/sterilization, vacation, surveillance), monitoring/investigation of demonstrated or suspected spread of infection within a particular health care setting. It is on this bases that a common title being adopted with health care is “infection prevention and control. infection control can be achieved through the following means infection control in healthcare facilities Hand hygene cleaning, disinfection and sterilization personal protective equiptment Antimicrobial surfaces vaccination of health care workers post exposure prophylaxis surveillance for infections isolation outbreak investigation training in infection control and health care epidemiology. INFECTION CONTROL IN HEALTHCARE FACILITIES. Aseptic technique is a key component of all invasive medical procedure. Similarly, infection control measures are most effective when standard precautions (health care) are applied because un-diagnose infection is common. HAND HYGIENE Independent studies by ignaz semmelweis in 1847 in vienna and oliver wendell Holmes in 1843 in Boston established a link between the hands of health care workers and the spread of hospital-acquired disease. The center for disease control and prevention (CDC) has stated that it is well documented that the most important measure for preventing the spread of pathogen is effective hand wash. Drying is an essential part of the hand hygiene process, worm air hand dryer, and modern jet air hand dryers, of those three methods, only paper towel reduced the total number of bacteria on hands, with “through-air dried” towels then most effective