Infection Control in Healthcare: Risks, Controls, and Procedures

Running head: HEALTHCARE
HEALTHCARE
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author note:

1HEALTHCARE
What is a communicable disease transmission?
Communicable diseases are referred as diseases which can spread from one infected
person to other. The infectious agents involved are bacteria and viruses. These pathogens
integrate in to the body, multiplies to grow in number and release toxins that causes harm to
the body cell function, and sometimes leads to death of the person. The transmission of
communicable disease is the method of transfer of the infection from one to another (Ismail
et al., 2016). There are various modes of transmission of pathogen such as airborne, direct
contact, or indirect contact like droplets. the following are the modes of transmission of
communicable disease:
 Droplet transmission from infected persons sneezing, spitting or coughing.
 Food or water borne transmission due to ingestion of food or water
contaminated with pathogens or using unclean utensils.
 Direct contact transmission by touching and indirect contact transmission by
sharing things with the infected person such s towel, clothes etc.
 Airborne transmission through respiratory tract because of their presence in
the air.
 Vector transmission via insects as some infectious agents breed inside their
body.
 Body fluid transmission due to usage of used or contaminated needles,
unprotected intercourse (Worby, Lipsitch and Hanage 2017)
.

2HEALTHCARE
Describe 5 common infection risks for your workplace and detail the control
measures.
The five common infectious risks are:
1. Common cold (Rhinoviruses/Coronavirus): It can easily spread from an
infected person to other in a workplace by physical contact or through air via
sneezing or coughing.
2. Pneumonia (Streptococcus pneumoniae): effects the lungs. Symptoms are
coughing, mucus production, breathing problem, fever or chest pain. It spreads
via contaminated air, coughing, sneezing and if not maintain proper hygiene.
3. Tuberculosis (Mycobacterium tuberculosis): effects the respiratory tract,
mainly lungs. Symptoms are coughing up blood and mucus, fever, weight loss
and night sweat.
4. Measles (Rubeola virus): it is spread through contaminated air from one
person to the other, and from sneezing or coughing of an infected person and it
shows symptoms like fever, rashes, body pain and also includes respiratory
tract involvement.
5. Acute infectious conjunctivitis: it is an inflammation of the conjunctiva of the
eye. It is caused by bacteria, virus, fungi or parasites. Symptoms are itching of
eyes, discharge of mucus, swollen lymph nodes and sometimes blurring of
vision (Zivich, Gancz and Aiello 2018).
Control measure:
The measures to control the spread of these diseases are as follows:
 by inspiring hand washing with soap or alcohol based sanitizer.
 employees must cover their face while sneezing or coughing.
 sick leave policies can be proposed for people suffering