CHAPTER 48. Infection prevention – protected environment and infection control by J. Peter Donnelly

ABSTRACT

In our daily life, we all encounter a range of microorganisms by breathing, eating and drinking and by direct contact with each other and the objects around us. This routine occasionally leads to infection. By contrast, patients who are given chemotherapy to treat cancer can succumb dramatically when confronted with these commonplace infections. Moreover when death ensued it was all the more tragic since in many cases it might have been avoided altogether had effective treatment been instituted early enough or, better still, if the infection had been prevented in the first place. In this chapter an overview of infection control measures including protected environment for severely immunocompromised cancer patients is presented.