Factors Affecting Susceptibility to Infection: Age, Wounds, Medication, Patient Movements, and Healthcare Facilities

This presentation discusses the various factors that affect an individual's susceptibility to infection, including age, wounds, medication, patient movements, and healthcare facilities. It explains how these factors increase the risk of infection and what can be done to prevent it. The presentation also includes references to recent studies on the topic.

INFECTION CONTROL
NAME:
INSTITUTION:
TUTOR:
DATE:

AGE/IMMUNE STATUS AND
INFECTION
• An increase in age makes an individual susceptible to infections due
to inappropriate immune response that becomes faulty with age(Pera
et al., 2015) .
• Compromised immune system makes an individual susceptible to
infection(Iwasaki & Medzhitov, 2015) . The immune system protects
individuals against infection and once they are compromised, then
this means an individual is likely to be infected easily.

WOUNDS/MEDICATION AND
INFECTION
• The presence of wounds increases the chances of infection. This is
because wounds expose the human body to different pathogens that
are responsible for different diseases.
• Certain medical procedures and illness increases the risk of infection.
Some medicines and illness alter the immune system as well as
certain medical procedures such as implants and this also increase the
risk of infection among individuals.

PATIENT MOVEMENTS/HEALTHCARE FACILITIES
AND SUSCEPTIBILITY AND INFECTIONS
• Travelling to infection prone areas increases the risk of infection. For
example ,if an individual travels to the coastline, they are likely to be
infected by malaria. Other diseases like Ebola can also be acquired by
travelling to risky areas.
• Healthcare facilities promote infections especially if there are no
prevention measures such as isolation(Cohen et al., 2015). Hospitals
need to practice good hygiene and consider safety practice so as to
prevent infections.

References
Cohen, C. C., Pogorzelska-Maziarz, M., Herzig, C., Carter, E., Bjarnadottir, R.,
Semeraro, P., … Stone, P. W. (2015). Isolation-based Infection Prevention and
Control Practices in Nursing Homes. American Journal of Infection Control,
43(6), S28. doi:10.1016/j.ajic.2015.04.071
Iwasaki, A., & Medzhitov, R. (2015). Control of adaptive immunity by the innate
immune system. Nature Immunology, 16(4), 343-353. doi:10.1038/ni.3123
Pera, A., Campos, C., López, N., Hassouneh, F., Alonso, C., Tarazona, R., &
Solana, R. (2015). Immunosenescence: Implications for response to infection
and vaccination in older people. Maturitas, 82(1), 50-55.
doi:10.1016/j.maturitas.2015.05.004