Infection Prevention and control

The field of infection prevention and control, a practical rather than academic subfield of epidemiology, is concerned with preventing illnesses that are related to healthcare.

In Northern Europe, infection prevention and control—also known as “infection protection”—is elevated from the realm of medicine to that of public health (smittevern, smittskydd, Infektionsschutz in the local languages). It is a crucial component of the system that supports health care. Hospital epidemiology and infection control are both forms of public health practise, however they are focused on an individual health care delivery system rather than society as a whole. [Reference required].Infection control focuses on issues linked to the transmission of infections within the hospital environment, including transmission between patients, among patients, among staff, among staff and among patients. This involves taking precautions like washing your hands, cleaning, disinfecting, sterilising, and immunising. A healthcare setting’s suspected infection outbreaks are investigated, managed, and subject to surveillance and monitoring.Preventing the spread of MRSA and other antimicrobial-resistant pathogens is a subset of infection control.

This also relates to the discipline of antimicrobial stewardship, which advocates only using antimicrobials when absolutely essential because growing usage invariably leads to the selection and spread of resistance organisms. Antibiotics, antibacterials, antifungals, antivirals, and antiprotozoals are examples of antimicrobial drugs (also known as antimicrobials or anti-infective agents).