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People are one source of germs including:
- Patients.
- Healthcare workers.
- Visitors and household members.
What is an infectious agent?
Infectious agents are organisms that are capable of producing infection or infectious disease. They include bacteria, fungi, viruses, and parasites.
What is a source of infection?
A Source is an infectious agent or germ and refers to a virus, bacteria, or other microbe. In healthcare settings, germs are found in many places. People are one source of germs including: People can be sick with symptoms of an infection or colonized with germs (not have symptoms of an infection but able to pass the germs to others).
What are infectious diseases and what causes them?
Infectious diseases are caused by diverse living agents that replicate in their hosts The agents that cause disease fall into five groups: viruses, bacteria, fungi, protozoa, and helminths (worms).
What are the 5 main agents that cause disease?
The agents that cause disease fall into five groups: viruses, bacteria, fungi, protozoa, and helminths (worms). Protozoa and worms are usually grouped together as parasites, and are the subject of the discipline of parasitology, whereas viruses, bacteria, and fungi are the subject of microbiology.
What are two other sources of infectious agent?
Pathogens associated with HAIs are derived primarily from human sources, but contaminated objects and environmental sources are also implicated. Human sources include patients, HCP, house hold members, and visitors.
What are examples of sources infection?
Objects may be sources of infection; food, water, air-conditioning systems, showers, medical instruments, recreational waters, door knobs, cotton handkerchiefs etc. Most man-made products that may be sources of infection are required to be produced while limiting the risk of contamination.
What are the 5 infectious agents?
The agents that cause disease fall into five groups: viruses, bacteria, fungi, protozoa, and helminths (worms). Protozoa and worms are usually grouped together as parasites, and are the subject of the discipline of parasitology, whereas viruses, bacteria, and fungi are the subject of microbiology.
What are the 4 agents that can cause infectious disease?
Infectious agents are organisms that are capable of producing infection or infectious disease. They include bacteria, fungi, viruses, and parasites.
What are 7 common sources of infection?
Common sources of infection Sources, e.g. airborne, blood borne, sexually transmitted, fecal, oral, environment, stagnant water, warm-water systems, animals.
What is the most common source of human infection?
The most common vector for human infection is the mosquito, which transmits malaria, West Nile virus, and yellow fever. Airborne transmission: Pathogens can also spread when residue from evaporated droplets or dust particles containing microorganisms are suspended in air for long periods of time.
What are the 6 major infectious agents?
There are six main classes of infectious agents:Prions.Viruses.Bacteria.Fungi.Protozoa.Helminths.
What are the three 3 types of infectious agents?
Infectious agents come in many shapes and sizes. Bacteria and protozoans are microscopic one-celled organisms. Viruses are even smaller. Fungi grow like plants.
What is infectious agent?
Infectious agents can be defined as agents that cause infections or infectious diseases. Examples of infectious agents include bacteria, fungi, viruses, and parasites (helminths and protozoa).
What are the 5 most common infectious diseases?
So, without further ado, here are the five most common infectious diseases.Hepatitis B. According to current statistics, hepatitis B is the most common infectious disease in the world, affecting some 2 billion people -- that's more than one-quarter of the world's population. ... Malaria. ... Hepatitis C. ... Dengue. ... Tuberculosis.
What are the 4 types of infections?
The four different categories of infectious agents are bacteria, viruses, fungi, and parasites. When studying these agents, researchers isolate them using certain characteristics: Size of the infectious agent.
What is infection and its sources?
An infection occurs when germs enter the body, increase in number, and cause a reaction of the body. Three things are necessary for an infection to occur: Source: Places where infectious agents (germs) live (e.g., sinks, surfaces, human skin) Susceptible Person with a way for germs to enter the body.
What Does sources of infection mean?
Source of infection: An object is designed as the source of infection, is one in which the agent of infection lives and propagates. Can be man or animal from which the infectious agent is secreted into the outer environment and from there to individuals.
What are the 4 types of infections?
The four different categories of infectious agents are bacteria, viruses, fungi, and parasites. When studying these agents, researchers isolate them using certain characteristics: Size of the infectious agent.
Which term means the source of infection?
Reservoir of infection: Any person, animal, plant, soil or substance in which an infectious agent normally lives and multiplies. The reservoir typically harbors the infectious agent without injury to itself and serves as a source from which other individuals can be infected.
What are the 4 types of infectious agents?
The 4 types of infectious agents are bacteria, virus, fungi, and parasites, which include helminths and protozoans. Infectious agents invade the ho...
How many types of infection are there?
There are four types of infections. The four types are bacterial, viral, fungal, parasitic infections. They are caused by bacterial, viruses, fungi...
What is an infectious agent?
Infectious agents can be defined as agents that cause infections or infectious diseases. Examples of infectious agents include bacteria, fungi, vir...
What are the sources of germs?
People are one source of germs including: Patients. Healthcare workers. Visitors and household members. People can be sick with symptoms of an infection or colonized with germs (not have symptoms of an infection but able to pass the germs to others). Germs are also found in the healthcare environment. Examples of environmental sources of germs ...
How does an infection occur?
An infection occurs when germs enter the body, increase in number, and cause a reaction of the body. Three things are necessary for an infection to occur: Source: Places where infectious agents (germs) live (e.g., sinks, surfaces, human skin) Susceptible Person with a way for germs to enter the body. Transmission: a way germs are moved ...
What is the term for the way germs are moved to the susceptible person?
Transmission . Transmission refers to the way germs are moved to the susceptible person. Germs don’t move themselves. Germs depend on people, the environment, and/or medical equipment to move in healthcare settings.
How do germs travel in healthcare?
There are a few general ways that germs travel in healthcare settings – through contact (i .e., touching), sprays and splashes, inhalation, and sharps injuries (i. e., when someone is accidentally stuck with a used needle or sharp instrument). Contact moves germs by touch (example: MRSA or VRE).
What is the name of the virus that can be spread by spraying your nose?
Sprays and splashes occur when an infected person coughs or sneezes, creating droplets which carry germs short distances (within approximately 6 feet). These germs can land on a susceptible person’s eyes, nose, or mouth and can cause infection (example: pertussis or meningitis).
How do hands become contaminated?
For example, healthcare provider hands become contaminated by touching germs present on medical equipment or high touch surfaces and then carry the germs on their hands and spread to a susceptible person when proper hand hygiene is not performed before touching the susceptible person.
What is an example of airborne transmission?
Airborne transmission can occur when infected patients cough, talk, or sneeze germs into the air (example: TB or measles), or when germs are aerosolized by medical equipment or by dust from a construction zone (example: Nontuberculous mycobacteria or aspergillus).
Why do people get sick?
People get sick when another organism, big or small, invades their body and infects them. These infectious agents come in all shapes and sizes, and all of them pose different threats to the human body. Some are microscopic, such as bacteria or viruses, which attack human bodies on the cellular level. Others are larger, like fungi, which are ...
What are some organisms that attack humans?
Some are microscopic, such as bacteria or viruses, which attack human bodies on the cellular level. Others are larger, like fungi, which are unicellular or multicellular organisms that grow on and feed off organic material, including humans.
What is the term for a disease that can be spread from person to person?
A contagious disease is one that can be spread from person to person. A contagion, like a virus or bacteria, is the agent responsible for causing contagious diseases. The disease itself can also be called a contagion.
What is an extremophile?
Extremophiles are organisms that can live in exceptionally harsh environments. Find out about the different types of extremophiles, their adaptations, where they live, and which one is considered to be the most resilient creature on the planet.
Source of Infection
We refer to the source of infection as the origin from which a host acquires the infection, either endogenous (i.e. originating from a person’s own commensal microbial flora) or exogenous (i.e. an individual, animal or object that in the external environment of the host).
Human reservoir
By far the most important source or reservoir of infection for humans is the man himself.
A. Infectious agent
A microorganism which is capable of producing an infection. (bacteria, virus, fungi, parasite and prion)
B. Infection
Invasion of the body tissue of a host by an infectious agent whether or not it causes disease
D. Infestation
Invasion of insect and worm that causes a disease to the host. Eg. Mites, ticks, flea, lice & worm
E. Contagious disease
diseases which are transmitted from one person to another person either by direct contact or by casual contact with their secretion / object touched by them
F. Communicable diseases
disease which are transmitted by direct and indirect (disease is spread from one person to another through a variety of ways)
K. Nosocomial infection
infection acquired in Healthcare facility including Hospital biomedical intervention are called nosocomial infection or Healthcare-associated infection (HAI) { acquired as clinical setting}
L. Host (get the disease)
a person or other (but on the living) organism that is susceptible to or harbors an infectious agent under natural condition
Why do viruses occur?
Viral infections. Viral infections occur due to infection with a virus. Millions of different viruses may exist, but researchers have only identified about 5,000 types to date. Viruses contain a small piece of genetic code, and a coat of protein and lipid (fat) molecules protects them.
What are the different types of pathogens?
Some pathogens are resistant to treatment. Infection can spread in a variety of ways. Bacteria, viruses, fungi, and parasites are different types of pathogens. They vary in several ways, including: size. shape. function. genetic content. how they act on the body.
What are the symptoms of a virus?
Others target a wider range of cells, leading to several symptoms. A flu virus can cause a runny nose, muscle aches, and an upset stomach. A person with a bacterial infection will often experience redness, heat, swelling, fever, and pain at the site of infection, as well as swollen lymph glands.
What are the parts of the body that are at risk for fungal infections?
These line the intestines, mouth, vagina, and other parts of the body. Those with a higher risk of developing a fungal infection include people who: use antibiotics for a long time. have a weakened immune system, due, for example, to living with HIV or diabetes or receiving chemotherapy treatment.
What are the causes of ectoparasites?
Finally, ectoparasites — including mites, ticks, lice, and fleas — can cause infection by attaching or burrowing into the skin. Ectoparasites can also include blood-sucking arthropods, such as mosquitoes, which transmit infection by consuming human blood.
What is an infection in 2020?
Types. Causes. Symptoms. Prevention. An infection occurs when a microorganism enters a person’s body and causes harm. The microorganism uses that person’s body to sustain itself, reproduce, and colonize. These infectious microscopic organisms are known as ...
What is an example of protozoan infection?
Amebic dysentery is an example of a protozoan infection. Helminths are larger, multicellular organisms that tend to be visible to the naked eye when fully grown. This type of parasite includes flatworms and roundworms. These can also cause infection.
