Universal precautions
From Citizendium, the Citizens' Compendium
In health care, universal precautions are "prudent standard preventive measures to be taken by professional and other health personnel in contact with persons afflicted with a communicable disease, to avoid contracting the disease by contagion or infection. Precautions are especially applicable in the diagnosis and care of patients with AIDS"[1] or other blood-borne diseases, especially hepatitis B.
The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has published details on universal precautions in health care.[2][3]
Beyond the level of universal precautions are the biosafety levels for education using known nonpathogenic organisms (i.e., Biosafety Level 1), up to the handling of the most dangerous, highly infectious diseases with no effective treatment (e.g., Ebola at Biosafety Level 4). Most work with known human pathogens should be at Level 2 or higher.[4]
References
- ↑ Anonymous, (2009) Universal precautions (English). Medical Subject Headings. U.S. National Library of Medicine.
- ↑ (June 1988) Update: universal precautions for prevention of transmission of human immunodeficiency virus, hepatitis B virus, and other bloodborne pathogens in health-care settings. MMWR Morb. Mortal. Wkly. Rep. 37 (24): 377–82, 387–8. PMID 2836717.
- ↑ Anonymous (1988). Perspectives in Disease Prevention and Health Promotion Update: Universal Precautions for Prevention of Transmission of Human Immunodeficiency Virus, Hepatitis B Virus, and Other Bloodborne Pathogens in Health-Care Settings. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
- ↑ U.S. Centers for Disease Control and National Institutes of Health, Biosafety in Microbiological and Biomedical Laboratories (BMBL) 4th Edition
