Infection Control for Measles: Risk, Breach, and Prevention Strategies

This report delves into the critical aspects of measles infection control within healthcare settings. It begins by highlighting the highly contagious nature of measles and its airborne transmission, emphasizing the importance of strict infection control policies. The report identifies key risk factors associated with measles outbreaks and provides a real-world example of an infection control breach, such as the failure to use personal protective equipment (PPE) or adhere to hand hygiene protocols. It then outlines strategies for preventing such breaches, including thorough analysis of breach situations, diligent monitoring of staff compliance, and comprehensive training programs. The report underscores the importance of disseminating information regarding infection control guidelines and the legal consequences of policy breaches. Finally, it concludes by emphasizing the need for a proactive and organized approach to infection control to effectively manage and prevent measles outbreaks.

Running head: INFECTION CONTROL FOR MEASLES
Infection control for measles
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author note:

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Table of Contents
Introduction:.........................................................................................................................2
Risk factors and risk event:..................................................................................................2
Example of Breach:..............................................................................................................2
Strategies for prevention of breach:.....................................................................................3
Dissemination of information:.............................................................................................4
Conclusion:..........................................................................................................................4
References............................................................................................................................5

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Introduction:
A significant chunk of Healthcare is associated with infection and prevention or
management of it. Since the very beginning of human civilization, infections has been one of
the greatest reasons behind the loss of a huge proportion of lives, due to racing outbreaks of
different infection pathogens. However, the Healthcare industry has advanced considerably,
and in the new and improved amendments of Healthcare standards, outstanding infection
control policies deserves a specific recognition. These infection control policies have been
extremely beneficial for facilitating successful management and even prevention of potential
infection epidemics (Miller and Palenik 2014). This assignment will focus on infection
control policies and a possible breach situation taking the example of measles infection.
Risk factors and risk event:
Measles is considered to be one of the most highly contagious infectious diseases, and
it is known to target 20 million people on an annual basis. The measles virus is considered to
be an airborne pathogen and it is easily transmitted from one person to another by the
affected person coughing or sneezing anywhere near the unaffected individual. The motor
method of transmission from one person to another phase wire aerosolized droplet nuclei,
hence the infection control policy for this virus needs to focus both on airborne routes and
direct contact. Hard hygiene policy is an absolute mandate for handling measles patient along
with use of personal protection equipments to avoid direct contact transmission, as per the
NSW infection control policy (Health.nsw.gov.au. 2017).
Example of Breach:
Although the main purpose behind the infection control policies are to ensure optimal
health and safety for both the patients in the Healthcare facility and the staff caring for

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patience with measles or any other infectious diseases, infection control policy breach is also
an unintentional albeit common occurrence. In this scenario, infection control policy breach
can easily occur by either the care staff not using PPE while handling a measles patient or by
not maintaining the 5 moments of hand hygiene strictly. And as the mode of transmission for
this disease is airborne via serialized droplet nuclei such a breach can avail cause an outbreak
of hospital acquired measles infection in the facility (Maltezou and Wicker 2016).
Strategies for prevention of breach:
While adherence to infection control policies are extremely necessary in case of
health care facilities, it also needs to be mentioned that a breach is mostly unintentional and
facilitated by a mishap in one of the meticulous steps of the protocol. The health care staff
responsible for a breach are penalized heavily as well, when, keeping the workload and
burnout under consideration, a mistake can always occur. On the other hand a infection
control policy breaches can be effectively avoided if a step by step policy compliance
strategy can be implemented (Ma etval., 2016).
The very step to this strategy should be analysis of the breach situation, identify
caption of the contributing factors behind the breach, and finally qualitative analysis of these
reasons to formulate strategies to avoid these issues from being formed.
The next step should be a diligent and strict monitoring body that can overlook the activities
of the care providers and their level of compliance to the infection control policies.
Third step should be periodic evaluation of whether the staff has the access to adequate
infection control supplies.
Often the health care staff do not have enough understanding of the benefits of
infection control policies, and often they do not have skills to adhere to each component of
the protocols. A training and skill improvement workshop focussing on infection control

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policies can be exponentially beneficial in helping the staff understand the value of infection
control and the direct benefits of this policy on the health and safety of both the patients and
themselves (Lim, Ho and O'reilly 2016).
Dissemination of information:
Infection control guidelines are important legislative guidelines and a breach in the
infection control policies demand legal and lawful consequences. In the face of a policy
breach, the legal guidelines direct at both verbal and formal communication of the breach
information to all key stakeholders, such as. The disclosure of any subjective or objective
data to outside personnel is strictly prohibited and is considered violating the privacy and
confidentiality (Filia et al., 2016).
Conclusion:
Measles is a fairly common yet alarmingly contagious infectious diseases, and
therefore strict infection control policies are implemented to keep the outbreak of this
particular virus under complete control. However infection control policy breach poses a
significant threat to avoiding such outbreaks; although it can be concluded that adhering to a
simple and organized strategy can drastically improve compliance to such policies and
prevent policy breaches before it can take place.

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References
Filia, A., Bella, A., Cadeddu, G., Milia, M.R., Del Manso, M., Rota, M.C., Magurano, F.,
Nicoletti, L. and Declich, S., 2015. Extensive nosocomial transmission of measles originating
in cruise ship passenger, Sardinia, Italy, 2014. Emerging infectious diseases, 21(8), p.1444.
Health.nsw.gov.au. (2017). Influenza. [online] Available at:
http://www.health.nsw.gov.au/Infectious/Influenza/Pages/default.aspx [Accessed 19 Sep.
2017].
Lim, L.L., Ho, S.A. and O'reilly, M., 2016. In-flight transmission of measles: Time to update
the guidelines?. American journal of infection control, 44(8), pp.958-959.
Ma, C., Gregory, C.J., Hao, L., Wannemuehler, K.A., Su, Q., An, Z., Quick, L., Rodewald,
L., Ma, F., Yan, R. and Song, L., 2016. Risk factors for measles infection in 0–7 month old
children in China after the 2010 nationwide measles campaign: A multi-site case–control
study, 2012–2013.Vaccine, 34(51), pp.6553-6560.
Maltezou, H.C. and Wicker, S., 2013. Measles in health-care settings.American journal of
infection control, 41(7), pp.661-663.
Miller, C.H. and Palenik, C.J., 2014. Infection Control and Management of Hazardous
Materials for the Dental Team5: Infection Control and Management of Hazardous Materials
for the Dental Team. Elsevier Health Sciences.