Did you know that germs are everywhere? The world is covered in germs! Everything has germs – every surface, material, and object, including your body. You read that right – your body is covered in germs, including viruses, bacteria, and some funguses. However, we’re often not aware of the germs around us and on our bodies because they’re too small to see and don’t usually cause harm to healthy people. In fact, many of those germs are good for us – they protect us and can keep other germs that could harm us from growing.
Reservoirs: A Natural Habitat for Germs
Whether germs are healthy or harmful to us, it’s important to know where they live and thrive – places called “reservoirs.” There are many reservoirs in the human body, such as our skin; ...
15-year-old Anna Valdez fidgeted in her chair as her eyes scanned the stethoscope, cotton balls, and other medical supplies on the far wall of the exam room. Anna had traveled by bus to the hospital by herself, hoping to get some medical attention. But the uninsured California teenager did not receive the initial response she was anticipating from the resident physician. After a discussion with the nurse though, he was more responsive to her concerns and began outlining Anna’s course of treatment. “In that moment, I thought, ‘Wow, that is really impactful.’ I experienced a lot of bias and inequalities because I was poor, so I was really impressed that a nurse could have that kind of impact.” At 16 years old, Anna found out she was pregnant. She dropped out of ...
Wanda Montalvo sat at her desk working on paperwork, she could hear nurses and physicians bustling about in the lobby. It was the 1980s, and Wanda was proud to be the secretary for the medical director’s office at the local community health center in Brooklyn, New York. Wanda saw her position as “paying it forward,” as she depended on community health centers growing up in a low-income and underinsured Latino household. However, she couldn’t help but wonder if there was something more she could do to give back to her community. After earning her Bachelor of Nursing degree, the first-generation college student went on to earn her master’s degree in nursing from Long Island University and her PhD in nursing science and health policy from Columbia University in New ...
Thirteen-year-old Ricardo Correa sat in the pediatric endocrinologist’s office alongside his mother, listening with fascination and soaking up information like a sponge. When the appointment ended, he returned to his home in Panama and spent the next few years learning more about his own health and taking every opportunity to help others who were sick or hurt. By age 18, Ricardo knew he wanted to become a doctor who could stop the spread of infectious diseases and help prevent chronic diseases. “When I was a kid, my mother always said that I could do two things in my life,” Ricardo Correa, MD, EdD, said. “One was being a singer and another being a doctor. Of course, the singer part never worked out – I was not privileged to have a voice. But the doctor part always was ...
“Reservoirs” are where germs live, like a habitat. Things we do in healthcare can be pathways for germs to be carried from one reservoir to another, or into spaces that are not supposed to have any germs.
Too Touchy
Hands, for instance, touch almost everything. Your hands and skin can pick up germs in the environment, from multiple reservoirs, and spread germs to other surfaces or people if not properly disinfected. Germs from the skin and gastrointestinal reservoirs spread easily through touch.
Pathways for Germs to Invade
Germs can also spread when they’re breathed in or through splashes or sprays to the eyes, nose, and mouth, or to broken or unhealthy skin. For example, urine and snot can get into breaks in the skin, or be splashed or sprayed into the eyes, nose, and ...
The pandemic revealed long-standing gaps in infection control knowledge and understanding among the frontline healthcare workforce. This is why CDC launched Project Firstline, a training and education collaborative designed to ensure all healthcare workers, no matter their role or educational background, have the infection control knowledge and understanding they need and deserve to protect themselves, their patients, and their coworkers. Salud America! at UT Health San Antonio, in partnership with the National Hispanic Medical Association (NHMA) and CDC Project Firstline, brings you a three-part episode podcast series, “Behind the Mask,” to explore infection control through three specific and diverse healthcare lenses: patient navigators/health screeners/community health ...
The pandemic revealed long-standing gaps in infection control knowledge and understanding among the frontline healthcare workforce. This is why CDC launched Project Firstline, a training and education collaborative designed to ensure all healthcare workers, no matter their role or educational background, have the infection control knowledge and understanding they need and deserve to protect themselves, their patients, and their coworkers. Salud America! at UT Health San Antonio, in partnership with the National Hispanic Medical Association (NHMA) and CDC Project Firstline, brings you a three-part episode podcast series, “Behind the Mask,” to explore infection control through three specific and diverse healthcare lenses: patient navigators/health screeners/community health ...
The main way that SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, spreads between people is by respiratory droplets. These are the tiny droplets of water that come out when you talk, cough, and breathe out and that other people can breathe in. The most common way we get infected with COVID-19 is when we breathe in the virus. Although less common, we can also get infected when we touch a surface that has virus on it. “When you touch something that has live virus on it and then you touch your face without cleaning your hands first, you can get virus into your eyes, your nose, and your mouth,” said Dr. Abigail Carlson, an infectious diseases physician with the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC), as part of CDC Project Firstline’s Inside Infection Control video ...
U.S. Latinos continue to deal with a heavy burden of COVID-19. Even if they don’t feel sick, a Latino or any person who is infected with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, can spread the virus to others. But how does that spread happen?
How Viruses Spread
Even when you have a mild infection, there is virus in your nose, throat, and lungs. Virus particles can spread through respiratory droplets that come out when you talk, breathe, cough, or blow air out of your nose or mouth. When you release respiratory droplets, they can land on someone’s eyes, nose, or mouth, or someone can breathe them into their respiratory tract. If this happens, the virus in the droplets can infect them. Respiratory droplets can also fall on surfaces. If someone touches that surface ...
