Assignment 10: Acute And Chronic Infections

| UNIT 4222- 264 THE PRINCIPLES OF INFECTION PREVENTION AND CONTROL | | | |

Choose a nursing problem from your current practice setting, and identify a possible solution to that problem.

Contamination may happen at any stage of food production, from seed and soil to packaging and cooking. Meat may be contaminated by inadequate storage or poor hygiene. Cross contamination can happen through raw meat. Pathogens can still be present in food due to food that is insufficiently warm. Food should only be reheated once, and drinking water could also be contaminated, although there are hygiene controls to prevent

the illness as lasted. Chronic meaning a long time such as a month or longer while acute means a

Hospital acquired infections (HAI) will begin to display signs and symptoms within 48 hours. In order to treat the infections, physicians need to diagnostic tools quickly. The manufacturer of new diagnostic test makers, Kalorama Information stated last year that the world demand for testing and treatment of HAI will be over 10 billion dollars by the year 2015, increasing from 9 billion dollars in 2010. Kalorama also stated that HAI has a 5% infection rate of 40 million hospital visits a year, causing 100,000 deaths in the U.S. annually (Kalorama Information, July 14, 2011). Early diagnosis will improve the patient's outcome and decrease the chance of death. According to Kalorama, 20-30% of the HAI can be prevented by the simple use of better hand washing and cross contamination avoidance although the others need more intensive changes such as hospital ventilation systems and using more disposable supplies (Kalorama Information, p. 113) .

Poor hand hygiene - spread of germs from one patient to another or spread for hands to surfaces.

Infection is the invasion and growth of microorganisms such as bacteria, viruses, and parasites that are not normally present within the body. A prokaryotic cell is a simple cell that does not have a nucleus. One of the most common types of prokaryotic cells is a bacterium. Bacteria are differentiated by many factors including shape, chemical composition, nutritional requirements, biochemical activities, and sources of energy (Tortora 76). A patient with an infection in the upper respiratory system will need to have a sputum sample sent to the lab for further evaluation to determine the cause in order to accurately treat the infection. While many microorganisms can be the cause of infection,

Every year a familiar scene plays out in clinic waiting rooms, chairs filled with miserable patients waiting to see their physician with complaints of a never ending cough and a constant nasal drip. More than likely, these patients will receive a prescription for antibiotics, but should they? Most acute respiratory tract infections (ARTIs), do not require an antibiotic, the symptoms will resolve themselves over time without antibiotic treatment. Healthcare experts and scientists have warned the public about the dangers of overusing antibiotics, and there are thousands of studies to support that fact, but no one is listening. Patients are convinced they need to have antibiotic treatment, and somehow their time is wasted if they leave empty

Upper respiratory tract infections (URTI), including acute otitis media (AOM) are the most common cause of ambulatory physician visits and antimicrobial prescriptions in children1,2. The most common bacterial causes of URTI are Streptococcus pneumoniae and Haemophilus influenzae, though the majority of cases are caused by viral pathogens 3–10. Distinguishing between viral and bacterial URTI can be difficult. Reports on quality of antimicrobial prescriptions have shown a 30-50% of all out-patient prescriptions due to (upper) respiratory tract infections to be inappropriate2,10,11. In Europe the quality of prescription is higher in the north of the continent, including Iceland compared to in the south12. Conversely, many factors contribute to the overuse of antimicrobials2,13–15, which in turn results to increase in antimicrobial resistance16,17. Contributing factors cited by by physicians to cause over-prescription include uncertainty of diagnosis, fear of disease complications, lack of perception of harmful effects of antimicrobials, not perceiving their own prescription practices to be a problem, pressure by patients, limited time, fear of damaging doctor-patient relationship in addition to language, cultural and educational barriers2,13–15. Antimicrobials were long a mainstay treatment against AOM in fear of rare, but dangerous complications, which have later been found to be unfounded, asnd

My future career is becoming an Infectious Disease Specialist. This is a career in the medical field where a patient might have a disease that is contagious and their blood, urine etc. samples come to the specialists. The specialists see what kind of disease the patient has based off of this. They can determined if it can be treated and how to plan to contain the disease so no one else gets it. An example of using the Respiratory anatomy knowledge in my career field might be seen on the patient. A patient might have an infectious Respiratory disease that comes into the hospital. The nurses or regular onsite doctors might do a series of tests on the respiratory part of the body. A test might be a Pulmonary Function Test (PFT) which measures

Per Dr. Williams, your chest x-ray does not show any overt infection, but we do see a questionable finding that may be early infection. He have ordered an antibiotic to take once a day for seven days. Please follow up with him in 10-14 days .If your symptoms progress or worsen go to the ER.

The acute infection is characterized by fast growing forms called tachyzoites, which lyse their host cells within 24–48 hours to release large numbers of progeny. In response to immune pressure, the parasite differentiates into a slow growing form called a bradyzoite, which resides within an intracellular cyst. Tissue cysts normally occur in long-lived cells such as muscle or neuronal cells. Ingestion of tissue cysts by members of the cat family results in sexual development within intestinal epithelial cells, culminating in the shedding of oocysts that undergo meiosis in the environment to form sporozoites.

However, everybody who has contact with the patient or the environment is entitled to relevant information that will enable them to reduce the risks of transmission to

After microorganisms enter the patient’s body they can go to the lungs and cause pneumonia. Central line-bloodstream infections occur when microorganism enter the bloodstream by the intravenous line. Microorganisms are transfer into the blood stream by inadequate hand hygiene or improper intravenous fluid, tubing, and site care practice. Multidrug-resistant organisms can cause infections of the blood, skin, or organ systems. These infections can arise due to the overuse or misuse of antibiotics, which can result in the microorganisms becoming more resistant to antibiotic therapy. Methicillin-resistant Staphyloccocus aureus and Clostridium difficile are examples of this kind of infection. Health care employees need to know the different types of hospital acquired infections and how they are spread to be able to effectively prevent them.

Infection control is very important in the health care profession. Health care professionals, who do not practice proper infection control, allow themselves to become susceptible to a number of infections. Among the most dreaded of these infections are: hepatitis B (HBV), hepatitis C (HCV), and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Another infection which has more recently increased in prevalence is methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). These infections are all treated differently. Each infection has its own symptoms, classifications, and incubation periods. These infections are transmitted in very similar fashions, but they do not all target the same population.