Microbial Transmission Routes in Hospitals

Hospitals and other healthcare settings will often implement Transmission-Based Precautions to prevent or help reduce the spread of infections to healthcare workers, as well other patients in their care. These Transmission-Based Precautions are designed to supplement standard precautions in patients/residents with documented or suspected infection/colonization of highly transmissible or epidemiologically important pathogens. The three categories of Transmission-Based Precautions include:

• Contact Precautions
• Droplet Precautions
• Airborne Precautions

For your initial post, choose one of the Transmission Based Precautions listed above to report on. Research your selection and provide answers to the following questions: When should the precaution be implemented? What type of PPE should be used by a health care worker providing care to the patient? Are there any other considerations that apply when caring for a patient with this type of precaution? Finally, list some examples of diseases that fall into this category.