To learn to protect ourselves from infections we must at first know what are the different ways, we can get infected? The disease producing microorganisms must reach our bodies before they can cause infection and disease. They take one or more of the following routes to reach us.
Routes of Infection
• To the mouth through food and drink.
• To the respiratory tract and lungs through the infected air coughed out by a patient.
• By skin contact. Normally our skin acts as an efficient barrier against infection, but if our hands get infected and we eat with dirty hands or touch sensitive parts like the eyes, we can transmit disease.
• Sexual contact.
• Through cuts and wounds.
• Infected injections or blood transfusion.
• Animal vectors such as mosquitoes and housefly transmit infection, e.g. housefly may sit on the excreta of a patient of cholera and then sit on food and infect it. Mosquito may acquire the malarial parasite by biting a patient of malaria, and then bite a healthy person and inject the parasite into him.
Let us now see how we can destroy the microorganisms, responsible for the infections.There are various ways of destroying the microbes.
Fire and heating at high temperatures, such as boiling for 10 – 15 minutes kill most of the common microbes.
Chemical disinfectants such as methylated spirit, carbolic acid, Savlon, etc., kill microorganisms. These chemicals, called antiseptics, can be used to our advantage. Any chemical which kills germs, a form of life, can be harmful to our health. Use of antiseptics has therefore to be judicious and external only.
Low temperatures stop the growth and multiplication of bacteria but does not kill them. Hence food left in the refrigerator remains fresh for a long time, provided it is not already infected.
Water filters: candle filters are reasonably effective to filter off bacteria and suspended impurities but they permit viruses to pass through. If a water-borne virus epidemic, such as infective jaundice, is raging, these filters are ineffective. Boiling the filtered water is safe.
Electric water purifiers are probably effective but need constant maintenance which is costly and not always available. Reverse osmosis technology is nowadays available at moderate price is quite effective for removing bacteriae and viruses.
Animal vectors, the carriers of infection, such as mosquitoes and housefly are eliminated by chemical sprays of insecticides, or their entry is prevented by wire-gauze shuttering or mosquito nets.
Personal precaution at home, work or travel will help us to prevent infection. Most of the things we know from our childhood but forget to implement. Just to refresh our knowledge regarding our self protection read the following points:
Personal Precautions At home:
• Wash your hands with soap and water every time you have to touch or eat food.
• Filter the water supplied by your municipality. Boil the filtered water if there is an epidemic of water-borne diseases such as cholera, gastroenteritis and infective jaundice.
• Do not let the food stand outside for any length of time before storing in the refrigerator, because at room temperature even small number of organisms will multiply to large numbers.
• Wash and clean the vegetables before storing in the refrigerator.
• Do not buy fruit, such as watermelon, which has been cut and exposed to flies.
• Disinfect the food, especially animal food such as milk and chicken by boiling before storing in the fridge.
• In the course of daily contact with people, you have to shake hands with them. Fortunately, Indian social customs forbid social kissing. Do not touch any delicate part of your body nor your food without first washing your hands with soap and water. If a guest has used the WC seat, clean it with antiseptic lotion before use.
• Do not allow others to use your personal clothing nor should you use theirs.
• Every member of the family should use separate towel for bathing.
• Linen and towels used by guests should be used only after proper washing and drying in the sun. In all doubtful cases, they should be sterilized by antiseptic lotion or by boiling in water.
• Keep your house free from mosquitoes and houseflies. Do not keep stagnant pools of water in or near your house; they breed mosquitoes.
• Change water of desert coolers every seven days; this will ensure that mosquitoes do not breed in them, because it takes ten days for the eggs to become larvae and then adult mosquitoes.
• Use insecticide sprays or fumes when necessary, but avoid unnecessary exposure to them. After the spray has acted for about half an hour, open the doors and windows wide open, but keeping the wire-gauze shutters in place, so as to let out the poisonous chemicals.
Personal precaution at work:
• While using a WC, either remove the seat with your toe (not ringer) and use the WC in the Indian style by squatting on it, or sterilize the seat with an antiseptic lotion before sitting on it. Alternatively, place a sheet of paper or newspaper between you and the seat, so that there is no direct contact between you and the seat.
• Take filtered and boiled water with you in a bottle for consumption at the workplace.
• Hot beverages like tea and coffee may be prepared and consumed in the office.
Personal protection while traveling:
• Take your own set of towels, two bed sheets and a pillow cover for each person.
• Use your own towels unless disposable towels are provided.
• Avoid food which has not come directly from the fire,
• such as salads.
• Do not drink hotel water; drink mineral water or reliable soft drinks directly from the bottles, if possible.
Miscellaneous precautions:
• If you have an infectious patient in the house, nurse him in a separate room, observing all common sense precautions such as not permitting children into the sick room.
• If you visit a friend who is ill, be careful to sit at a distance, especially if he is coughing or sneezing. Always wash your hands with soap and water when you come out of the sick room.
• When going out to attend functions, marriages or parties, load yourself with water. If you are thirsty, drink straight from a bottle of a reliable soft drink or mineral water; do not use tumbler which is rarely washed properly at functions.
• If there is a cut or wound, do not give time to micro¬ organisms to multiply and grow in numbers. Immediately, clean the area with an antiseptic such as methylated spirit and apply clean dressing such as Band-Aid. Take care not to touch the inside dressing material with your fingers, even though they have been washed with soap and water.
• Confine your sexual activity to the marital bed. If both the spouses are faithful to each other, the serious sexually transmitted diseases such as AIDS and syphilis are avoided.
• Many of the serious infections such as AIDS, Hepatitis B and C can be transmitted through injections an infected syringe and needle. Either
• Pre-sterilized disposable syringe and needle, or boil the glass syringe and needle for fifteen minutes before allowing yourself to be injected with it. The above mentioned infections can be transmitted through infected blood transfusion or injection of infected blood products. If a blood transfusion is to be given to you or any family member, always get certified blood from a reliable laboratory.
This article is also published in India Study Channel
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