CLINICAL LAB SCIENEC

CHAPTER 6: INTRODUCTION TO INFECTION CONTROL 147
Protection against and Prevention of Infection by
Bloodborne and Airborne Pathogens
Medical laboratory workers and other prospective medical care providers by law
must be provided with information on specific bloodborne and airborne diseases.
This is necessary to enable the medical laboratory employee and the student
assigned to the laboratory to make informed decisions regarding self-protection
to prevent contracting disease on the job in the course of treating patients. Students
and health care professionals who practice the precautions outlined in this
section will face little possibility of becoming accidentally infected.
Practices and Precautions for the Medical Laboratory Worker
The two most effective means for protecting the laboratory worker as well as
other professionals providing health care are personal protection and appropriate
and effective immunization. Not all pathogens have effective immunizations
designed for them (e.g., HIV). But HBV has been greatly minimized
as a disease among health care workers due to effective immunization, now
required for all health care workers unless they exercise their right to decline
the procedure.
Personal Protection
• Protective Equipment: This principally entails the wearing of appropriate
protective garments, masks, and respirators while providing care to
patients who are known to be or are potentially infectious. The wearing
of appropriate protective clothing and devices protects both the patients
and the workers or students who have had contact with other contagious
patients and who might transmit the infection from one patient to
another.
• Work Practice Controls and Engineered Controls
• Work practice controls relate to the practices of the medical care
worker to minimize risk of contamination. It is related to what the
worker does rather than what he or she uses in the way of devices.
One example of a work practice control is washing of the hands
before donning gloves and after removing the gloves following the
performance of a procedure.
• Engineered controls refer to controls that include manufactured items
such as sharps disposal containers, self-sheathing needles, safer medical
devices such as sharps with engineered sharps injury protections
and needleless systems, and hand washing and eyewashing facilities.
These equipment or supplies serve to isolate or remove a bloodborne
pathogen hazard from the workplace.
Immunizations
An immunization is the most specific way of protecting oneself. There are no
immunizations to date for certain infectious diseases. While great strides have
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