Infection Control Assignment: Methods of Infection Transfer

This assignment addresses infection control in a healthcare setting, focusing on a scenario involving a patient who developed an infection after a cesarean section. The solution identifies the infection as a healthcare-acquired infection (HCAI), detailing its characteristics, including symptoms such as fever, pain, and redness. It explores potential causes, such as contaminated surgical tools, unclean surgical practices, and environmental factors. The assignment also provides a response to a chemical spill, outlining the correct procedures for cleaning and disinfection, and differentiating between colonization, infection, and disease. Additionally, it discusses the methods of infection spread in workplaces, emphasizing airborne pathogens, contaminated objects, and body fluids, along with preventive measures like handwashing and personal hygiene. The response includes references to support the analysis.

Running Head: INFECTION CONTROL 1
Comply with Infection Prevention and Control Policies and Procedures
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Question 2
The infection associated in the scenario is the health care acquired infection. This
infection patient gets them when receiving surgical procedures. Most of them are associated with
aching, the part which is surgery has been carried out and increased fever. The skin turning red is
due to the presence of pus-filled in it. In this, it requires the doctor to re-open it and drain the
infected area. This infection occurs after long labors when the membranes of the body stretch
and stays for a long time before the doctor carries out the procedure. This infection can be easily
treated with antibiotics. When the procedure is done, it takes a lot of time to heal, meaning the
healing process is very slow. This mostly happens to many women when they have undergone
the cesarean procedure. These type of infection is caused by bacteria, and in many instances, it
can spread to other body organs (Khan, Baig and Mehboob, 2017).
This infection can also occur due to surgeons using contaminated surgical tools.
Moreover, if the surgeon who is performing the procedure is not clean, he or she can cause the
infection. Also, even the beddings from the hospital can cause the infection if they are not well
cleaned; this means that surgical wounds are very susceptible to infections. Also, the infection
can originate from the outside environment causing the wound to be infected; this means that the
environment which the health care is located should be clean. Also, other patients cause infection
in instances where the wound is shown to them, and hence, they touch with dirty hands. Infection
can also come from the skin of the patient in that the skin microbiota finds their way through the
part which has lacked the proactive barrier, and most absolutely is the surgical wound. All this

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might be the cause of the infection, but the main cause originates from the health setting, which
means that all the health setting should be kept clean from any contamination.
Question 4
First, I could access a special kit called guide for the chemical spill before attempting to
remove this spill. This guided provides the information of when cleaning different types of spills.
The guides will guide me on how I will plan to clean by the use of good cleaning equipment. The
guide will help me not incur any injury when cleaning and also keep me away from being
infected. To clean the spill, I could first prepare the cleaning solution with neutral detergent, and
water should be warm (Polprasert and Koottatep, 2017). Then use a cleaning mop to ensure that I
don’t touch the spill. Moreover, I should rinse the surface using a strong disinfectant to avoid the
disease to be spread to another patient. After ensuring that the place is clean, I should empty the
bucket being used and rinse it using warm water and store it for the next use when turned upside
down. Also the mop I used I should clean it using detergent and warm water and also rinse it
with warm water to remove all the infection. Then I should store it with the head up so that it can
dry (Damani, 2019).
Question 7:
Colonization can be defined as the presence of infection, for example, a bacterium on the
body of an individual without causing any harm to the patient. Colonization can occur on the
body surfaces, which include skin, mouth, intestines. While infection can be defined as the
instance where the body of the individual is invaded with host organism on the body tissues
hence causing health issues. Moreover, a disease can be defined as an abnormal condition that
affects the functioning of the body of an organism (Casadevall and Pirofski, 2017).

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Question A:
Infection in work places can be spread in various ways. This is through the breathing of
the airborne pathogens in instances where individuals cough; this air is inhaled by others.
Moreover, another cause is touching objects in the workplaces, which are contaminated; this
includes computer keyboards and also the floor surface of the working place (Beltrami et al.,
2016). Moreover, eating contaminated food is also another cause and also skin to skin contact.
Skin to skin contact allows the pathogens to transfer from one person to the other. Furthermore,
contact with body fluids can cause infection in the work places; the body fluids include saliva,
urine, and faeces.
To prevent infection in the work places personal hygiene practices are required like
regular handwashing, covering open wounds it’s advisable, wearing gloves when handling body
fluids is essential to prevent infection and to handle personal items well. This include avoids
sharing towels, clothes, razor blades, and toothbrushes. An example of a common source of
infection in the workplace is direct contact with contaminated objects (World Health
Organization, 2016).

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References
Beltrami, E. M., Williams, I. T., Shapiro, C. N., & Chamberland, M. E. (2016). Risk and
management of blood-borne infections in health care workers. Clinical microbiology
reviews, 13(3), 385-407.
Casadevall, A., & Pirofski, L. A. (2017). Host-pathogen interactions: basic concepts of microbial
commensalism, colonization, infection, and disease. Infection and immunity, 68(12),
6511-6518.
Damani, N. (2019). Manual of infection prevention and control. Oxford University Press.
Khan, H. A., Baig, F. K., & Mehboob, R. (2017). Nosocomial infections: Epidemiology,
prevention, control and surveillance. Asian Pacific Journal of Tropical Biomedicine, 7(5),
478-482.
Polprasert, C., & Koottatep, T. (2017). Organic waste recycling: technology, management and
sustainability. IWA publishing.
World Health Organization. (2016). Guidelines on core components of infection prevention and
control programmes at the national and acute health care facility level. World Health
Organization.