Chapter 14 Infection Prevention and Control: Key Terms

Question 1

Airborne Precautions

Answer 1

Safeguards designed to reduce the risk of transmission of infectious agents through the air a person breathes

Question 2

Antibody

Answer 2

Immunoglobulins, essential to the immune system, that are produced by lymphoid tissue in response to bacteria, viruses, or other antigens

Question 3

Antigen

Answer 3

Substance, usually a protein, that causes the formation of an antibody and reacts specifically with that antibody

Question 4

Asepsis

Answer 4

Absence of germs or microorganisms

Question 5

Aseptic Technique

Answer 5

Any health care procedure in which added precautions are used to prevent contamination of a person, object, or area by microorganisms

Question 6

Asymptomatic

Answer 6

Clinical signs and symptoms are not present

Question 7

Carriers

Answer 7

Person or animals who harbor and spread an organism that causes disease in others but do not become ill

Question 8

Colonization

Answer 8

The presence and multiplication of microorganisms without tissue invasion or damage

Question 9

Communicable Disease

Answer 9

Any disease that can be transmitted from one person or animal to another by direct or indirect contact or by vectors

Question 10

Contact Precautions

Answer 10

Safeguards designed to reduce the risk of transmission of epidemiologically important microorganisms by direct or indirect contact

Question 11

Disinfection

Answer 11

Process of destroying all pathogenic organisms, except spores

Question 12

Droplet Precautions

Answer 12

Safeguards designed to reduce the risk of droplet transmission of infectious agents

Question 13

Endogenous Infection

Answer 13

Infections produced within a cell or organism

Question 14

Exogenous Infection

Answer 14

Infection originating outside an organ or part

Question 15

Flora

Answer 15

Microorganisms that live on or within a body to compete with disease-producing microorganisms and provide a natural immunity against certain infections

Question 16

Health Care-Acquired Infection (HAI)

Answer 16

An infection that was not present or incubating at the time of admission to a health care setting

Question 17

Immunity

Answer 17

The quality of being insusceptible to or unaffected by a particular disease or condition

Question 18

Infection

Answer 18

The invasion of the body by pathogenic microorganisms that reproduce and multiply

Question 19

Inflammation

Answer 19

Protective response of body tissues to irritation or injury

Question 20

Inflammatory Response

Answer 20

Protective reaction that neutralizes pathogens and repairs body cells

Question 21

Medical Asepsis

Answer 21

Clean techniques that includes procedures to reduce the number and prevent the spread of microorganisms

Question 22

Microorganisms

Answer 22

Microscopic entities, such as bacteria, viruses, and fungi, capable of carrying on living processes

Question 23

Necrotic

Answer 23

Of or pertaining to the death of tissue in response to disease or injury

Question 24

Pathogenicity

Answer 24

Ability of a pathogenic agent to produce a disease

Question 25

Pathogens

Answer 25

Microorganisms capable of producing disease

Question 26

Reservoir

Answer 26

A place where microorganisms survive, multiply, and await transfer to a susceptible host

Question 27

Standard Precautions

Answer 27

Guidelines recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to reduce the risk of transmission of blood-borne and other pathogens in hospitals

Question 28

Sterilization

Answer 28

Technique for destroying microorganisms using heat, water, chemicals, or gases

Question 29

Suprainfection

Answer 29

Secondary infection usually caused by an opportunistic pathogen

Question 30

Surgical Asepsis

Answer 30

Procedures used to eliminate any microorganisms from an area. Also called sterile technique

Question 31

Symptomatic

Answer 31

Pathogens multiply and cause clinical signs and symptoms

Question 32

Transmission-Based Precautions

Answer 32

Patients with communicable diseases and infections that are easily transmissible to others require special precautions

Question 33

Virulence

Answer 33

The ability of an organism to rapidly produce disease