Prevention of infectious diseases
Prevention of infectious diseases
The main feature of the prevention of infectious diseases is that it is necessary to influence several parts of the infectious process, namely:
• destruction of microorganisms;
• impact on transmission routes to prevent human infection;
• impact on the human body for the development of immunity (resistance) to infections.
Destruction of microorganisms
For the destruction of microorganisms on objects of the external environment (sterilization), physical, chemical and biological methods of influence are used.
Physical methods of sterilization include:
• high temperature – sterilization of medical instruments, pasteurization of products;
• high pressure – this method is called autoclaving, is widely used in surgical hospitals;
• ultraviolet irradiation – used to sterilize disposable medical instruments after packaging.
Chemical methods of destruction of microorganisms involve the use of antiseptics.
Antiseptics are chemicals whose exposure leads to the death of microorganisms (rubbing alcohol, iodine, brilliant green solution, hydrogen peroxide, and others).
In the case of the biological method, bacteriophages are used – viruses that infect bacteria, which leads to their destruction.
Impact on transmission routes
According to the method of human infection, such ways of transmission of the infection are distinguished, which, accordingly, can be affected:
• airborne transmission – for the prevention of infectious diseases, masks are used, airing, preventing the accumulation of a large number of people in the room (prevention of influenza, colds, chicken pox, whooping cough, tuberculosis);
• alimentary (food) route of transmission – personal hygiene, washing of hands, food, absence of flies in rooms where food is cooked (all intestinal infections, salmonellosis, dysentery, viral hepatitis A) play an important role;
• sexual (contact) transmission – an important point in the prevention of such infections is the absence of promiscuity with frequent changes of partners and the use of condoms (viral hepatitis B, C, HIV AIDS, genital herpes, syphilis, gonorrhea, papillomatosis);
• blood route of transmission – in this case, sterile surgical instruments, avoiding tattoos (especially at home) will help prevent infectious diseases, that is, all efforts are aimed at preventing violations of the integrity of the skin and mucous membranes (most often – viral hepatitis B, HIV AIDS) .
Impact on the human body
This type of prevention of infectious diseases is directly related to the creation in the human body of immunity (immunity) to a particular infection through immunization and is called specific immunoprophylaxis of infectious diseases. There are two main types of immunoprophylaxis:
• active immunization (vaccination) – after the introduction of a vaccine (pathogen antigen or live weakened microorganisms) into the human body, specific antibodies are formed, which, even when infected, prevent the development of an infectious disease. Currently, active immunization is being carried out against such infectious diseases: tetanus, whooping cough, diphtheria, hemophilic infection, viral hepatitis B, poliomyelitis, measles, rubella, epidparotitis (“mumps”), tuberculosis.
• passive immunization – ready-made antibodies to a specific infection are introduced into the body, which is used for emergency prevention of infectious diseases (emergency prophylaxis of tetanus).
