Full Description
Biofilms in Infection and Disease Control: A Healthcare Handbook outlines the scientific evidence and rationale for the prevention of infection, the role biofilms play in infection control, and the issues concerning their resistance to antimicrobials. This book provides practical guidance for healthcare and infection control professionals, as well as students, for preventing and controlling infection.
Biofilms are the most common mode of bacterial growth in nature. Highly resistant to antibiotics and antimicrobials, biofilms are the source of more than 65 percent of health care associated infections (HCAI), which, according to the WHO, affect 1.4 million people annually. Biofilms are involved in 80 percent of all microbial infections in the body, including those associated with medical devices such as catheters, endotracheal tubes, joint prostheses, and heart valves. Biofilms are also the principle causes of infections of the middle-ear, dental caries, gingivitis, prostatitis and cystic fibrosis. Importantly, biofilms also significantly delay wound healing and reduce antimicrobial efficiency in at-risk or infected skin wounds.
Contents
SECTION 1: FUNDAMENTALS OF INFECTION CONTROL
1. Introduction to Infection and Prevention
2. Infection Prevention: Principles of Safe Practice in Healthcare
3. Hand Hygiene
4. Decontamination
5. Challenges to Healthcare Providers
6. Changing Practice
7. Introduction to Invasive Devices
SECTION 2: BIOFILMS AND INFECTION CONTROL
8. Introduction to Biofilms
9. Biofilm Control and Resistance in the Healthcare Setting or Biofilms and HAI
10. Biofilms and infection control in Intravascular Catheters
11. Biofilms and Endotracheal Tubes
12. Antimicrobial Chemotherapy: Significance to Healthcare
13. Biofilms and Recalcitrance
14. Microbial Resistance and Superbugs
15. Preventing Infection Associated with Urethral Catheter Biofilms
16. Hospital Water Supplies and Biofilm Control
17. Preventing Wound Infection and Biofilms
