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Infection Prevention, and Control Guidelines for Primary Care Physicians
Glossary of Terms
Additional precautions: Interventions to reduce the risk of transmission of microorganisms from patient to patient, patient to health care worker, and health care worker to patient (e.g. airborne, contact, droplet).
Antibiotic Resistant Organism: A microorganism that has developed resistance to several antibiotics and is clinically or epidemiologically significant.
Antiseptics: Chemicals that kill microorganisms on skin or mucous membranes. Antiseptics should not be used in housekeeping.
Biomedical waste: Waste that is generated by human or animal health care facilities, medical or veterinary settings, health care teaching establishments, laboratories, and facilities involved in the production of vaccines.
Cleaning: The physical removal of foreign material (e.g. dust, soil, organic material such as blood, secretions, excretions and microorganisms). Cleaning physically removes rather than kills microorganisms.
Colonization: Presence of microorganisms in or on an individual with no signs or symptoms of infection.
Communicable: Capable of being transmitted from one person to another; synonymous with “infectious” and “contagious”.
Contamination: The presence of microorganisms on inanimate objects (e.g. clothing, surgical instruments) or microorganisms on body surfaces such as hands, or in substances (e.g. water, food).
Critical items: Instruments and devices that enter sterile tissues, including the vascular system.
Decontamination: The removal of disease-producing microorganisms to leave an item safe for further handling.
Disease: Clinical expression of infection; signs and/or symptoms are produced.
Disinfection: The inactivation of disease-producing microorganisms. Disinfection does not destroy bacterial spores.
Hand Hygiene: A process for the removal or destruction microorganisms on hands.
Health care provider: Any person working in a medical setting including physicians, nurses, allied health care professionals, clerical and support staff.
High level disinfection: Level of disinfection required when processing semi-critical items. High level disinfection processes destroy vegetative bacteria, mycobacterium, fungi and enveloped (lipid) and non-enveloped (non lipid) viruses, but not necessarily bacterial spores.
Immunocompromised: Increased susceptibility to infection (e.g. HIV/AIDS, chemotherapy or blood malignancy).
Infection: The entry of an infectious agent in the tissues resulting in clinical signs and symptoms (disease).
Isolation: The physical separation of infected individuals from those uninfected for the period of communicability of a particular disease.
Low level disinfection: Level of disinfection required when processing noncritical items or some environmental surfaces. Low level disinfectants kill most vegetative bacteria and some fungi as well as enveloped (lipid) viruses (e.g. Hepatitis B, C, Hantavirus, and HIV). Low level disinfectants do not kill mycobacteria or bacterial spores. Low level disinfectants-detergents are used to clean environmental surfaces.
Non-critical items: Those that either touch only intact skin but not mucous membranes or do not directly touch the patient.
Nosocomial infection: Infection acquired in a health care setting.
Outbreak: An excess over the expected incidence of disease within a geographic area during a specified time period, synonymous with epidemic.
Personal protective equipment (PPE): Specialized clothing or equipment worn by an employee for protection against an infectious hazard (e.g. gloves, masks, protective eyewear, gowns). General work clothes (e.g. uniforms, pants, shirts or blouses) are not intended to function as protection against a hazard and are not considered personal protective equipment.
Plain soap: Detergent-based cleansers in any form (e.g. bar, liquid, or powder) used for the primary purpose of physical removal of soil and contaminating microorganisms.
Routine practices: The routine use of hand washing and personal protective equipment to prevent exposure to blood and body fluids and control the transmission of communicable diseases.
Semi-critical items: Devices that come in contact with non-intact skin or mucous membranes but ordinarily do not penetrate them. Reprocessing semi-critical items involves meticulous cleaning followed preferably by high-level disinfection (level of disinfection required is dependent on the item).
Sharps: Needles, syringes, blades, laboratory glass or other objects capable of causing punctures or cuts.
Sterilization: The destruction of all forms of microbial life including bacteria, viruses, spores and fungi. Items must be cleaned thoroughly before effective sterilization can take place. |
