Infection Prevention – 5 Things to Do for Prevention
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Avoiding contagious diseases like the common cold, strep throat, and the flu is important to everyone. Here are five (5) easy things you can do to fight the spread of infection. 1. Clean your hands. • Use soap and warm water. Rub your hands really well for at least 15 seconds. Rub your palms, fingernails, in between your fingers, and the backs of your hands. • Or, if your hands do not look dirty, clean them with alcohol-based hand sanitizers. Rub the sanitizer all over your hands, especially under your nails and between your fingers, until your hands are dry. • Clean your hands before touching or eating food. Clean them after you use the bathroom, take out the trash, change a diaper, visit someone who is ill, or play with a pet. 2. Make sure healthcare providers clean their hands or wear gloves. • Doctors, nurses, dentists, and other healthcare providers come into contact with lots of bacteria and viruses. So before they treat you, ask them if they’ve cleaned their hands. • Healthcare providers should wear clean gloves when they perform tasks such as taking throat cultures, pulling teeth, taking blood, touching wounds or body fluids, and examining your mouth or private parts. Don’t be afraid to ask them if they should wear gloves. 3. Cover your mouth and nose. • Many diseases are spread through sneezes and coughs. When you sneeze or cough, the germs can travel 3 feet or more! Cover your mouth and nose to prevent the spread of infection to others. • Use a tissue! Keep tissues handy at home, at work and in your pocket. Be sure to throw away used tissues and clean your hands after coughing or sneezing. 4. If you are sick, avoid close contact with others. • If you are sick, stay away from other people or stay home. Don’t shake hands or touch others. • When you go for medical treatment, call ahead and ask if there’s anything you can do to avoid infecting people in the waiting room. 5. Get shots to avoid disease and fight the spread of infection. • Make sure that your vaccinations are current – even for adults. Check with your doctor about shots you may need. Vaccinations are available to prevent these diseases: Chicken Pox Meningitis Flu (also known as influenza) Mumps Measles Whooping Cough (also knowns as Pertussis) Diphtheria Tetanus German Measles (also known as Rubella) Shingles Pneumonia (Streptococcus pneumonia) Five Things You Can Do To Prevent Infection was developed in collaboration with * American Hospital Association www.hospitalconnect.com * Association for Professional in Infection Control and Epidemiology, Inc. www.apic.org
* Centers for Disease Control and Prevention www.cdc.gov * Infectious Diseases Society of America www.idsociety.org * The Joint Commission www.jointcommission.org * Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America www.shea-online.org
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