Ventilation is the movement of air in and out of spaces. Good ventilation can help remove things from the air that we don’t want to breathe in, such as chemicals and dust – and small virus particles released by someone who is infected with a respiratory virus, like SARS-CoV-2. “The fewer virus particles in the air, the less likely you are to breathe them in, or that the virus particles will land on your eyes or a surface that you might touch,” 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 series.
The Importance of Air Changes
Good ventilation involves air changes, which means that the air in a room is replaced with new or filtered ...
A respirator keeps you from breathing in particles in the air that might hurt you, like germs, dust, and chemicals. In healthcare, we use respirators when we think we’re going to be in a situation when we could breathe in air that’s carrying infectious particles – like viruses.
Air-Purifying Respirators
There are different types of respirators available in healthcare. Air-purifying respirators work by using filters, or canisters or cartridges, to remove dangerous things from the air that you could breathe in. There are many types of air-purifying respirators. Healthcare workers often use a filtering facepiece respirator (FFR), which fit snugly against the face and cover the mouth and nose. The most common type of FFR used in healthcare is the N95 respirator – more ...
Many vaccines, including the current vaccines for COVID-19, come in small bottles with more than one dose inside. These are known as multiple-dose, or “multi-dose” vials, and can be used to vaccinate more than one patient.
Multi-Dose Vials and Infection Control
Multi-dose vials are more likely to become contaminated compared to single-dose vials, and therefore require important injection safety actions. “Multi-dose vials are more likely to get dirty because you’re putting a needle into that bottle many times to pull out each dose for each separate vaccine,” 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 series. If the vial gets ...
The COVID-19 saga continues as the virus continues to mutate, and the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) identify new subvariants of the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. The CDC is studying a new subvariant, called BA.2.12.1, to determine how it spreads and how well existing treatments and vaccines for COVID-19 work against it. “[BA.2.12.1 and other subvariants of Omicron] are more contagious with more immune escape, and they are driving a lot of the increases in infection that we’re seeing across the nation right now,” said Dr. Ashish Jha, White House Covid-19 response coordinator, according to Vox. Latinos, who are disproportionately affected by COVID-19 hardships, are still struggling to recover from the initial hit of the ...
You may be wearing PPE on your face right now. A mask is a common form of PPE, or “personal protective equipment,” as are respirators, gowns, gloves and eye protection frequently worn by frontline healthcare workers. These all help protect the wearer – you! – from germs that can make people sick. But they have a second important function, too. “So, the unique thing about PPE in healthcare is that it actually serves two purposes, and both of those purposes are really important. One part is to protect you, but the other part is to protect your patient and coworkers from germs that you might be carrying,” said Dr. Abigail Carlson, an infectious diseases physician with the CDC, as part of CDC Project Firstline’s Inside Infection Control video series.
What is PPE and ...
Different viruses are spread in different ways. The main way that SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, spreads between people is by respiratory droplets. “In this case, a ‘droplet’ doesn’t just mean water that you can see, like big raindrops or splashes in the sink or a pool,” 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 series. “These droplets we’re talking about are actually really tiny, and where they come from may surprise you.”
Where Do Respiratory Droplets Come From?
You might think that when you breathe out, all that comes out is air. But our breath contains water too, in the form of respiratory droplets. ...
Cleaning removes dust, dirt, and germs from surfaces and objects. Disinfection makes sure that as many germs as possible are destroyed or killed. Cleaning and disinfection are both important infection control actions in hospitals and other healthcare settings because they keep germs away from people and help keep germs from spreading. Seems like common sense, right? “Even though it’s common sense, it’s important to think through all the reasons why we’re so careful about keeping an environment clean,” said Dr. Abigail Carlson, an infectious diseases physician with the CDC, as part of CDC Project Firstline’s Inside Infection Control video series.
The Importance of Cleaning and Disinfection: The Immune System
When we are healthy, our bodies have many built-in ways to ...
Do you realize how many things you touch with your hands every day? When we touch anything from our phones to our doorknobs, we can pick up germs like bacteria, fungi, and viruses. Germs can get in between our fingers or under our fingernails where it’s warm and damp, or in cuts on the skin, and grow and spread quickly, causing illness. That’s why hand hygiene and cleaning your hands is an important for infection control for frontline healthcare workers. “The simple answer is, when you clean your hands, you're stopping the spread of germs to your patients, to the environment, and to the things in the environment and from your patients or the environment to you,” said Dr. Abigail Carlson, an infectious diseases physician with the CDC, as part of CDC Project Firstline’s ...
Cleaning and disinfection are both important for preventing infections from spreading in healthcare settings. But cleaning is not the same as disinfection. Let’s explore the importance of cleaning and disinfection, and the difference between them, with the help of the CDC’s Project Firstline, a training and education collaborative designed to ensure all healthcare workers have the infection control knowledge and understanding they need and deserve to protect themselves, their patients, and their coworkers.
What is Cleaning?
Cleaning removes things like dust, dirt, grime, and other spills, smears, and everyday messes from surfaces. Cleaning can also remove things that are not visible, like germs. "You can think of cleaning as removing the ‘gunk’ that you can see on ...
