Are Standard Infection Control Precautions Enough?
Nancy Andrews, RDH, BS
Learning Objectives:
Upon hearing this podcast, the listener should:
- Know
the best practices to prevent the spread of disease in his/her office
- Learn
the different methods for preventing contact, airborne, and droplet-spread
infections
A clinician must ask him or herself when additional
infection control measures are necessary in treatment. Standard precautions are
designed to protect patients and healthcare workers from not only blood-borne
pathogens, but those spread by blood or all bodily fluids, excretions, or
secretions--regardless of whether they contain blood, nonintact skin, or mucous
membranes. Under ordinary circumstances, standard precautions have shown to
keep patients and workers safe, but these precautions do not provide sufficient
protection against infection. In these cases, transmission-based precautions
must be taken. These include contact
precautions, droplet precautions, and airborne precautions.
Related Reading:
- Guidelines
for Infection Control in Dental Health Care Settings---2003, Centers for
Disease Control MMWR Dec. 19, 2003 / 52(RR17);1-61.
- Standard
Precautions, Guideline for Isolation Precautions in Hospitals, Department
of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention, http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dhqp/gl_isolation_Standard.html
- Contact
Precautions, Guideline for Isolation Precautions in Hospitals, Department
of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention, http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dhqp/gl_isolation_contact.html
- Droplet
Precautions, Guideline for Isolation Precautions in Hospitals, Department
of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention, http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dhqp/gl_isolation_droplet.html
- Respiratory
Hygiene/Cough Etiquette (www.cdc.gov/flu/professionals/infectioncontrol/resphygiene.html)
- Airborne
Precautions, Guideline for Isolation Precautions in Hospitals, Department
of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention, http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dhqp/gl_isolation_airborne.html
- Guidelines
for Isolation Precautions in Hospitals, Department of Health and Human
Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dhqp/gl_isolation_table.htm.