Communicable Diseases: Nursing Overview

Communicable Disease Nursing - Overview

• Refers to diseases caused by pathogenic organisms or their toxins.
• These are transmitted directly or indirectly under conducive environments.

Ecologic Triad of Disease Causation

• Agent: The infectious organism
• Host: The individual susceptible to the disease
• Environment: The external factors aiding transmission

Infectious Agents

• Include bacteria, viruses, fungi, protozoa, or toxins.
• Bacteria: Treated with antibacterial agents (antibiotics)
• Viruses: Antiviral agents inhibit replication but don't kill the virus
• Toxins: By-products of metabolism are treated with antitoxins to provide artificial passive immunity.
• Protozoa: Treated with antiprotozoal agents.

Modes of Transmission

• Can be direct or indirect.

Hosts

• Commonly human beings.
• One Health approach emphasizes balanced interaction between humans, animals, and the environment.

Environment

• Serves as a medium for pathogens/microorganisms to multiply and cause infections.
• Rainy seasons are linked to waterborne diseases (dysentery, cholera, typhoid fever), influenza, leptospirosis, and dengue.
• Hot seasons are linked to chickenpox, measles, conjunctivitis, and skin infections.

Contagious vs. Infectious Diseases

• Contagious: Easily spread directly from person to person (direct contact) through an intermediary host.
• Infectious: Caused by a pathogen, not transmitted by ordinary contact (indirect), requiring direct inoculation through broken skin/mucous membrane.
• All contagious diseases are infectious, but not all infectious diseases are contagious.

Chain of Infection

• Infectious Agent: A pathogenic agent

Factors affecting agent development

• Pathogenicity: Ability to cause infection; bacteria and viruses are highly pathogenic.
• Infective Dose: Number of microorganisms required to cause infection is reduced with antibiotics
• Virulence: Ability to move and transfer to body tissues/organs. For example viruses are virulent
• Specificity: Ability to resist antibodies/antimicrobial agents. Mycobacterium is high in specificity

Factors influencing a pathogenic agent causing infection

• Resident Agents: Normal flora that can cause infection if the infective dose is high.
• Transient Organisms: Easily removed via hand-washing, not normal flora.

Reservoir

• Place where the organism stays.
• Reservoirs include the GI and respiratory tracts.

Portal of Exit

• Where the organism exits an infected individual.
• Examples include sputum (respiratory tract) and feces (GI tract).

Mode of Transmission

• Weakest link to remove.

Modes

• Direct contact: Person to person.
• Indirect Contact: Inanimate object; requires inoculation.
• Droplet: >5 microns, travels within 3 feet.
• Airborne: <5 microns, travels beyond 3 feet (ex: TB, measles, chickenpox, ASRS).
• Vector: Insects (Ex: mosquitoes spread dengue, malaria, filariasis).
• Vehicle: Contaminated food/water via oral route (feces, urine, blood).

Portal of Entry

• Usually same as exit
• Examples include sexually transmitted routes

Susceptible Host

• Condition increasing infection chance.

Factors predisposing an individual to infections

• Age
• Nutritional Status
• Stress levels
• Comorbidity

- Medical/Chemo treatment

Stages of Infection

• Incubation: Agent enters until onset of first symptoms.
• Prodromal: Nonspecific to specific symptoms appear.
• Illness/Acme: Local and systemic symptoms are evident.
• Convalescent: Symptoms abate and return to normal.

Objectives of Communicable Disease Control (CCD)

• Restoration of health.
• Reduction of deaths and disability.
• Interpretation of control measures for practice to prevent spread.
• Promotion of health and prevention.

Prevention of Communicable Diseases

• Health education.
• Specific protection like PPE use.
• Environmental sanitation.

Control of Communicable Diseases

• Notification
• Epidemiological investigation
• Isolation and quarantine
• Medical asepsis
• Disinfection and sterilization
• Immunization
• Early diagnosis and treatment

Notification Protocols

• Notification is essential when infection is present.
• All members of the healthcare team such as Physicians, Nurses, Midwifes Etc., and the Infection Control Committee must be notified
• Community notifications should always be the responsibility of the health care practitioners, abiding to RA 3573

Disease Monitoring

• Diseases that require weekly monitoring diseases targeted for elimination
• Diseases targeted for eradication.

Epidemiological Investigation

• Identification of epidemic sources via secondary prevention

Disease Frequency Patterns

• Sporadic: Occasional cases in small pockets.
• Endemic: Disease is present within a community or region
• Outbreak: Increase in expected cases in a specific location (Ex Last Month an outbreak of cholera and dengue in Cebu.)
• Epidemic: Clear excess of disease across a large region.
• Pandemic: New disease spreads across multiple countries/regions.

Types of Epidemiology

• Point Source: Originates from a single source
• Propagated: Spreads via human(STI) or vector-borne transmission

Patterns of Disease

• Cyclical Variation: Cycle increases or decreases in case no. dengue, higher no.of cases during rainy days
• Short Time Fluctuation: A change if frequency in a disease for a shot time
• Secular Variation: Change if frequency from diseases over for a long period of time. Ex Small pox is eradicated in the 1978, then this year

Epidemiology Types

• Descriptive: Describes disease patterns and trends in time.

Factors influencing a cause of infection

• analytic and identify the factors that has causes,
• Effectiveness of therapeutic/ clinical intervention
• Evaluation: ability to evaluate the effectiveness of a program.

Epidemiologic Data Types

• Demographic: Example Population sizes, age distribution
• Vital statistics example morbidity, mortality, prevalence, incidence rates
• Environmental Data- type of resources, water usage
• ratio oh health worker, number if workers

Conducting Epidemiological Investigation

• Establish fact of the presence of condition- determine no.of cases
• Establish time and space relationships- determine who developed of infection
• Analyze relations to the characteristics of a group and correlate all data and to
• public surveillance - ongoing systematic data collected,
• Analyze data about health and changes levels of diseases

Health Surveillance Types

• Ongoing systematic collection and analysis of data.

Types

• Passive: Information is sent to health department, most common in PH,
• Active Information is actually collected by the department.
• Surveillance- clinician notices an unusual case this is how most epidemics are initially identified.
• System: look at officials sales ED triage pharmacy at Rx drugs hospital Infectious Collect individual or big data

Screening in Epidemics

• Assessment or testing for indication of infection, check for lab for chest xray for tuberculosis rapid assessment in check body head or look face at airport.

Case Definitions

• Start with a new definition include person time, place and clinical early lab to be counted.

Outbreak Investigation

• Plan to determine and create geo identifying area where
• the condition
• Mode: Of transmission and fact
• Process- data, collect best
• to contain and hall

Factor Affecting Isolation

• Serves as 4 factor to identify isolation
• Mode Transmission.
• source for infection
• Status to defeat mechanism

Isolation Categories

• strict area contact -contagious
• Respiratory
• Enteric- feaces
• Blood- Body

Precautions in Healthcare

• Precautions to decrease the risks: Is ASEPSIS with no, or A little, or the minimum, ASEPSIS to be used
• to and transfer pathogen’s medical reduces it

Defined Technique for Hand washing

• Before and after handling patients

Personal Protective Equipment

• Protect yourself from contaminations. Put all gears on -Sequence for removing

Gloves

• Direct contact patients, change every after patient

A Surgical Mark

• Used after MOT is airborne

A mask

• used as our initial barrier or protection

Management of Needlestick Injuries

• Dispose used needles in puncture proof
• Don’t recap
• Use

Techniques For Cleanliness

• Sterilization- kill all micro organism with spores
• two of sterilization with heat or radiation

Chemical Sterilization

• Immerse the articles to kill microorganism spores.
• Ex: Heat:Ethylene gases to Chlorine and etc.

Disinfection

• Sterilization - kill all microorganism with spores

2 types

• current practices- while
• terminal practices
• antiseptic with person that inhibits only, destroying

The different types of infections that’s

Alcohol- both antiseptic disinfectant Sodium

Immunization for Vaccine

• Give in early diagnosis and treatment

Respiratory Communicable Disease’s

• Most transmission is via droplet
• Pneumonia- infection bacterial The agent through those to alveoli passages

Tests for respiratory distress-

Sputum and consolidation by lungs - Medical - administer anti - Maintain

Tuberculosis

• Affects the lungs
• public -direct 3, one every two

Causative

-Agent

• Gram Cell mad up Antibiotic - to combat

TBs Transmission

• Airborne or Droplets: Coming from sneezes
• public
• Take that three by public

Viral Transmissions To Diagnose/ Assess

• Fever, cough, loss -
• public - with 1-3 one a week and month

Tuberculosis

Give Pts more nutrients and protein and fluids. That are hepatoxic

Side affects to other areas

• Eye
• Liver
• Nerves
• Kidneys
• Antibiotics to treat symptoms

Public Health Nurse Role

• Direct and Monitor with a (+) acid specimens are
• Is highly contagious the year targeted that
• With TB’s

Tuberculosis facts cont.

• That are acid high prevent
• Public will provide one if two positive, treat a year

Overview of communicable diseases, their transmission, and the ecologic triad of disease causation. Includes information on infectious agents like bacteria, viruses, and protozoa. Focus on the roles of the agent, host, and environment in disease spread.