Words: 248
Control of infections in a hospital is a difficult task as patients admitted in hospitals are highly vulnerable to acquire nosocomial infections. Apart from patients, even health care workers are at a higher risk of acquiring infections through various ways. Nosocomial and hospital acquired infections have been on the rise in the past decade due to a number of reasons including lack of proper infection control strategies, poor hygienic conditions in the hospital wards, emerging drug resistant strains of causative organisms, etc. Therefore, it is important to devise various strategies to control the transmission of infectious agents in the hospital.
Pertussis is a highly infectious and contagious disease. It is caused by an organism Bordetella pertussis. The common mode of transmission of organism is via droplet infection and exposure or contact with respiratory secretions of infected individuals. The incubation period usually varies from 7-10 days (Alexander, 2008).
Pertussis is highly contagious in its early stages when coughing and catarrhal stage begins. Over time, the disease becomes less infectious and an individual is considered to be non-infectious after 3 weeks of the start of symptoms.
Pertussis usually presents with initial stage of coughing and sneezing. Over time, the cough becomes severe; there are paroxysms or bouts of cough which result in vomiting and even cyanosis in patients.
This sample is just a model; please place an order for custom essays, research papers, term papers, thesis and dissertations.