Importance of good infection prevention practices

Over the past few decades, the world has seen increased outbreaks of disease that were once better controlled, and infectious agents that can cause incurable diseases, such as HIV and hepatitis C, have become a significant cause of illness and death in many parts of the world.

Why have infections increased?

There are many complex reasons why outbreaks of infections have increased, including:

• Rapid population growth
• Increased poverty
• Expansion of the population into "remote" areas
• Environmental degradation
• Improved transportation, leading to easier spread of disease
• Inadequate or deteriorating public health infrastructure
• Poor disease control and disease prevention

This training course deals with this last factor, disease control and prevention--specifically preventing the spread of infections in health care settings.

Infection in health care settings

Although we do not often think about it, health care facilities are ideal settings for transmission of disease, because:

• Whenever clinical procedures are performed, clients are at risk of infection during and immediately following the procedure.
• Service providers and other staff are constantly exposed to potentially infectious materials as part of their work.
• Many of the people seeking health care services are already sick and may be more susceptible to infections.
• Many of the people seeking services have infections that can be transmitted to others.
• Services are sometimes provided to many clients in a limited physical space, often during a short period of time.

With appropriate infection prevention practices, you can:

• Prevent postprocedure infection, including surgical-site infections and pelvic inflammatory disease (PID).
• Provide high-quality, safe services.
• Prevent infections in service providers and other staff.
• Protect the community from infections that originate in health care facilities.
• Prevent the spread of antibiotic-resistant microorganisms.
• Lower the costs of health care services, since prevention is cheaper than treatment.

In delivering services, it is important to prevent infections to clients at all times, including during routine examinations, during surgery, and during the provision of contraceptive services, management of STDs, childbirth, and the provision of postabortion care.

©2004 EngenderHealth