Contact precautions and hand hygiene in veterinary clinics

Abstract

Hand hygiene, contact precautions, and other basic infection control measures are crucial in veterinary clinics, because these facilities can be community mixing pots of animals and people with a wide range of health and disease-carrier states. Veterinary staff must be knowledgeable and well trained regarding when and how to apply situation-appropriate contact precautions and to properly perform hand hygiene. The limited information on the use of contact precautions and hand hygiene practices among veterinary staff suggests that compliance is low. Improving the infection control culture in clinics and in veterinary medicine is critical to achieving better compliance with these practices.

Keywords: Barrier nursing; Contact precautions; Hand hygiene; Hospital-associated infections; Infection control culture; Interventions; Zoonoses.