CLINICAL LAB SCIENEC

CHAPTER 6: INTRODUCTION TO INFECTION CONTROL 115
Table 6-1 Substances Recognized by the CDC as Having the Potential
to Transmit Pathogens
Blood
Blood products
Semen
Peritoneal fl uid
Amniotic fl uid
Cerebrospinal fl uid
Urine
Organs
Synovial fl uid
Vaginal secretions
Pleural fl uid
Pericardial fl uid
Unfi xed tissue specimens
Breast milk
Sweat
Saliva in dental settings where bleeding occurs
adults, the virus is most often spread through sexual contact or by the sharing of
needles, although early in the history of the disease, before testing for the virus
or antibodies was performed on blood donor samples, transfusions resulted in
a large number of infections. Most infected children acquire the virus in utero
from infected mothers. Some cases have occurred as the result of transfusions
of blood or blood products , such as the blood factors necessary to treat patients
with hemophilia. HIV may be spread through the blood from an infected person
getting into broken skin, open cut, or abrasion, or into the mouth or eyes.
Infection Control and Its Relationship to Health Care Facilities
All personnel employed in the health care environment are required to have a
basic knowledge and understanding of disease and disease transmission . This
knowledge is focused on the protection of both the patient and the health care
worker. A number of issues related to infection control are common to all categories
of health care workers to accomplish the goal of preventing workers and their
assigned patients from becoming infected through exposure to pathogens. The
issues of protecting patients and medical workers from contracting a serious infection
is of such importance that federal legislation has been implemented to prevent
or at least minimize the number of these incidences. Certain minor practices in the
workplace will provide a means for preventing potentially tragic occurrences.
According to a report in The Chicago Tribune in July 2002, a number of startling
charges were made related to infection control in hospitals. Infection control
is designed to protect both patients and workers, but even in this day with
increased availability of products and services designed to do just this, there are
many breaches of established policies in many hospitals. This article states that
approximately 75,000 patients needlessly die each year due to dirty hospitals and
that the most effective and simple way of preventing the spread of pathogens,
handwashing, is practiced by only about 50% of physicians and nurses as they
go from patient to patient. The most helpless of patients, those who are infants,
neonates (babies just born), the elderly, and immunocompromised or weakened,
are at the greatest risk for the development of a hospital-acquired infection.
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