ABSTRACT
This article identified the source and reason for spread of COVID-19 infection and devise recommendations to halt the progress of infection in a non-COVID area. Results showed that 34 persons were impacted by the outbreak, which lasted from December 19, 2020, to January 12, 2021. Attack frequency was 9.2%. This study determined that inadequacies in infection control procedures, a high bed-to-patient ratio, anomalies in the ventilation system, overcrowding by patient attendants, and a communication gap between nursing officers and doctors were the root causes of the present outbreak. After the last confirmed case, the necessary controls for the outbreak were put in place, and no new instances were recorded for two weeks. SARS-CoV 2 nosocomial outbreaks are a concern in non-COVID hospital settings as well, so it is important to adhere to the same tight infection control procedures there as in COVID areas to stop these outbreaks.
ABSTRACT
The precautionary principle of hygiene is also of great importance in the current COVID-19 pandemic. The precautionary principle must be distinguished from the infection control principle, which is primarily aimed at controlling cluster events or outbreaks. The pre-cautionary principle aims to prevent outbreaks in the first place by means of well-founded behavioural recommendations as well as operational-or- ganizational and structural-functional measures. These basic ideas give prevention or hygiene priority over control-oriented strategies, even in modern infection legislation;they are also known as the hygiene concept. In contrast to this, for a long time the primacy in Anglo-Saxon countries was traditionally oriented towards epidemiology and control, which means intervention measures that begin only after the occurrence of infections and whose primary goal is to prevent further transmission. This approach is also known as the infection control concept. Accordingly, hygiene concepts are primarily proactive, infection control concepts are reactive. The precautionary principle of hygiene and its legal anchoring are explained. Afterwards, the basics for the development of infection-hygienic based prevention and control strategies are discussed and explained. In addition, the previous knowledge on the basics of reservoirs, transmission vehicles and uptake, which are important for the development of hygiene concepts, will be discussed. Finally, the options for hygienic medical strategies and measures, the precautionary principle in hygiene and its legal anchoring are explained. As much as the authors are convinced that wherever sufficient evidence is available, it must be used, they see the danger in the specific situation of emerging health risks that the primacy of evidence for recommended measures leads to waiting and seeing where action is required. Waiting until all measures have been proven by high-quality epidemiological studies can be expensive due to unavoidable infections.