Standard Precautions Among Health Care Workers

CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION History has it that anything that the hand of Midas touched turned to gold.  There is power in the touch.  As healing can come from a touch, so also infection, disease and eventually death can come from a touch, be it for the person touching or the person being touched.           The normal skin is designed to reduce water loss, protect against abrasions and to act as a permeability barrier1.  It is colonized by bacteria usually of two categories: Resident flora and transient flora.  The Resident flora are less likely to cause health care related infections, while the …