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10: MICROORGANISMS & INFECTIONS |
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By - Pauline W. Fallis,
As a professional electrologist, you must work to control the spread of
infections. Everyone is at risk of either acquiring or transmitting
infection. As a rule, you will not know what disease, if any, a client who
enters your office may have. You must have good infection control
practices in place so that you can protect both your client and yourself.
We tend to associate microorganisms with disease, but the world as we know
it could not exist without them. Many microorganisms live on the body as
normal flora. They often coexist so that one microorganism does not
overgrow to cause a harmful infection.
Some microorganisms are even useful. Various species of bacteria inhabit
the gastro-intestinal tract to aid the digestion of food. Bacteria and
yeast are used in the production of foods such as yogurt and salami.
Sewage treatment, soil regeneration and many vaccines would not be possible
without micro-organisms.
But when these same microorganisms invade and grow in a part of the human
body in which it is foreign, it causes disease, an infection.
What is an infection? An infection is the action by which microorganisms
invade and multiply in the body, resulting in injury to otherwise healthy
tissues or cells. This injury may be caused by one of several actions:
Competitive metabolism - whereby the microorganism may compete with the
cell for food; toxins which are poisons that may be produced by
microorganisms; intercellular reproduction which is the reproduction of
microorganisms inside a cell and the antigen- antibody response which is
the body's natural response to the presence of disease causing
microorganisms.
There are several factors that can effect the ability of microorganisms to
cause dis-ease. Pathogenicity is the ability of a microorganism to cause
injury to healthy cells and tissues. Some infectious agents cause disease
more easily than others. The dose is the number of pathogenic organisms
required to cause an infection. The dose required varies from
microorganism to microorganism and from person to person. Microorganisms
have the ability to travel from place to place. The more ways a
microorganism can travel or how quickly they can travel, the longer they
survive.
Some organisms produce enzymes such as a protein which can speed up
chemical reactions. Substances called antigens produce a specific immune
response to infectious agents. Variations in the antigens can cause
different levels and types of response. Even changes in the antigen can
affect how organisms cause infections. The presence of substances called
resistance-transfer plasmids that can change the organism in such a way
that the usual antibiotics will no longer be effective, can make it
difficult for us to treat and stop the infection.
Other factors such as the ability of the organism to adhere to the
intestinal wall, resist gastric acid, resist disinfectants or produce other
substances like toxins can affect the infectability of the pathogen.
Disease is transmitted at different times during the disease process. The
period during which a microorganism is capable of spreading disease varies
with each species. It may be transmitted during the incubation period,
which is the time in which the organism is growing but there are no signs
or symptoms of disease present as yet. It could be as part of another
disease, during a convalescence, or even during the chronic carrier state.
It all depends on the organism's life- cycle. Some infectious agents may
even remain dormant in body tissues until a trigger mechanism initiates
active disease (e.g., when a bad cold triggers the reactivation of the
herpes simplex virus to produce a coldsore). We do not know what many of
these trigger mechanisms are, or even why they trigger microorganisms to
cause active disease.
Some or all of these factors interlink to form a specific chain of events
that cause a pathogen to produce an infection. In order for you to reduce
the risk of spreading an infection, you should have good infection control
practices in place. These should include effective hand washing,
disinfection of contaminated surfaces and equipment and sterilization of
instruments. Remember! Client safety is your prime concern.
References:
Benenson, A.S. ed., Control of Communicable Diseases in Man, fifteenth
edition, Washington, D.C. American Public Health Association, 1995
Fallis, P.W., Handbook on Infection Control in Office Based Health Care and
Allied Services, Canadian Standards Association, Toronto, 1994
Laboratory Centre for Disease Control, Infection Control Guidelines, Hand
Washing, Washing, Cleaning and Sterilization, draft Health Canada, Ottawa,
1998
McLean, D.L. Smith, J.A., Medical Microbiology Synopsis, Lea & Febiger,
Malvern, PA, 1991
INFECTION CONTROL ARTICLES
- PREPARING FOR THE PATIENT/CLIENT
Spring 2001, Volume 8, Number 1
- PREVENTING INFECTION FOR ELECTROLYSIS
Fall 2000, Volume 7, Number 2
- INFLUENZA
Spring 2000, Volume 7, Number 1
- MICROORGANISMS AND INFECTIOUS DISEASE
Summer 1999, Volume 6, Number 2
- BLOOD BORNE INFECTIOUS DISEASES AND PERSONAL PROTECTION
Spring 1999, Volume 6, Number 1
- MICROORGANISMS & INFECTION
Fall 1998, Volume 5, Number 2.
- BIOLOGICAL TESTING OF YOUR STERILIZATION PROCESS
Spring 1998, Volume 5, Number 1
- STEAM STERILIZATION
Fall 1997, Volume 4, Number 2
- CHEMICAL STERILIZATION
Spring 1997, Volume 4, Number1
- DRY HEAT STERILIZATION
Fall 1996, Volume 3, Number 2
- STERILIZATION
Spring 1996, Volume 3, Number 1
- IS YOUR USE OF NEEDLES SAFE IN YOUR PRACTICE?
Fall 1995, Volume 2, Number 2
- PREPARING INSTRUMENTS FOR STERILIZATION
Spring 1995, Volume 2, Number 1
- WHY ARE GLASS BEAD STERILIZERS NOT RECOMMENDED FOR USE IN ELECTROLOGY?
Fall 1994, Volume 1, Number 2
- STERILIZATION: HOW, WHEN, AND WHAT WITH
Spring 1994, Volume 1, Number1
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