Health care workers are at occupational risk for a vast array of infections that cause substantial illness and occasional deaths. Despite this, few studies have examined the incidence, prevalence, or exposure-associated rates of infection or have considered infection-specific interventions recommended to maintain worker safety. abstracts published between January 1983 and February 1996 related to occupationally acquired infections among health care workers showed: More than 15 airborne infections have been transmitted to health care workers, including tuberculosis, varicella, measles, influenza, and respiratory syncytial virus infection. Outbreak-associated attack rates range from 15% to 40%. Most occupational transmission is associated with violation of one or more of three basic principles of infection control: handwashing, vaccination of health care workers, and prompt placement of infectious patients into appropriate isolation. The risk for occupationally acquired infection is an unavoidable part of daily patient care. Infections that result from airborne transmission of organisms cause substantial illness and occasional deaths among health care workers
Posted on: Tue, 30 Dec 2014 11:59:52 +0000