Health & Hygiene

THE CHAIN OF INFECTION

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 The Chain of Infection
Healthy Person Become:
The
k to edit Master text styles ROUTE
nd levelSOURCE
hird level
Fourth level
● Fifth level

Healthy Person

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Second level
● Third levelTARGET
● Fourth level
● Fifth level

Healthy Person Become Sick

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 THE CHAIN OF INFECTION

Skull

‘’REMEMBER’’
Cranium

Face

Cervical vertebrae Mandible

Shoulder girdle

Clavicle

Scapula

Thorax

Upper limb Sternum

Rib
Humerus

SOURCE ROUTE TARGET

Source of Disease Route to your Body You Spinal column
Disk
Radius Vertebra
Pelvis
Ilium

Sacrum
Ulna

Pubis
Hand Coccyx
Ischium
Carpals

Metacarpals

Phalanges

Lower limb

Femur

Patella

E
ROUT
Fibula

Source
Tibia

E
ROUT Foot
Tarsals
Metatarsals
Phalanges

Calcaneus

SKELETON, ANTERIOR VIEW

An Infected Animal

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‘’REMEMBER’’
THE CHAIN OF INFECTION

SOURCE (HUMAN)
CASE
CARRIER
CONTACT
CONVALESCENT
CORPSE
SOURCE ANIMAL

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 ROUTE OF TRANSMISSION

Diseases would soon disappear if germs died,

once they left the source.

Unfortunately, many germs can live for

considerable periods of time outside the
human or animal body.

Communicable diseases can be conveniently

divided into five groups according to the exit
portals from the various sources of infection:

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THE CHAIN OF INFECTION
ROUTE

AIRBORNE
CONTACT
INTESTINAL
INSECT
ANIMAL

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 THE CHAIN OF INFECTION

SOURCE
(HUMAN /ANIMAL)
CASE
CARRIER
CONTACT
CONVALESCENT
CORPSE

ROUTE
An Infected Person
AIRBORNE
CONTACT
INTESTINAL
INSECT

TARGET
Now Become a Source
of Disease

THE

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HEALTHY PERSON
Any Questions

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 Source (Human)

Cases Click to edit Master text sty

This term is applied to persons who areSecond level
● Third level
actually suffering from Disease and
usually this person has a mild attack and● Fourth level
● Fifth level
his condition Does not ensure that he
reports sick

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 Source (Human)

Carriers
This term applies to a persons with a
disease which they can pass on to other
people , but show no signs and symptoms

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 Source (Human)

Contacts Click to edit Master text st

Second level
A person who has been in ● Third level

● Fourth level
direct or indirect Contact with a ● Fifth level

case and the germs are Multiplying

inside them (incubation period)
And during this time passing on the
germs to other people.
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 Source (Human)

Convalescents
These are persons recovering from
infectious illness who continue to be
carriers during the convalescent phase.
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 Source (Human)

Corpse
Unless a person dies from natural
Causes a corpse must be treated as a
potential source of infection

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 Source, (Animals)

Animals
Some diseases common
in animals can be
transmitted to man?

i.e.
ü Tuberculosis,
ü Undulant Fever,
ü Rabies etc.

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 ROUTE OF TRANSMISSION
Airborne group
Route. Thousands of droplets of moisture containing
germs are expelled every time we breathe, sneeze
or cough.

The heavier droplets travel horizontally for about 3

metres before settling on the floor. The smaller the
droplets the further they travel and the longer they
take to settle. When they settle on the floor the
moisture evaporates and the

germs they contained become mixed with dust in

which they can become airborne again.
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 ROUTE OF TRANSMISSION
Airborne group

Examples:
The common cold,
influenza,
tonsillitis,
diphtheria,
whooping cough
tuberculosis.
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 ROUTE OF TRANSMISSION
Contact Group

Diseases in this group travel by TWO

ROUTS:
1. Direct – person to person:

1. Indirect – via clothing, washing kit,

sports kit, eating utensils:

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 ROUTE OF TRANSMISSION
Contact Group
1,Direct, person to person for example:

ü Scabies
ü Impetigo
ü Gingivitis
ü Sexually transmitted diseases.

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 ROUTE OF TRANSMISSION
Contact Group
2,Indirect – via clothing, washing kit,
sports kit, eating utensils, for
example:
ü Fungal skin infections
ü Impetigo
ü Gingivitis (infected drinking cups)
ü Conjunctivitis (infected towels)
ü Barbers rash Back
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 ROUTE OF TRANSMISSION
Intestinal Group
1. These are diseases caused by germs or
parasites which are passed in excreta
(bowel motions, urine or vomit) of infected
persons. Healthy persons become
infected by swallowing Food and Water
which has become infected by such
germs in one of the following ways:

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 ROUTE OF TRANSMISSION
Intestinal Group
ü Inadequate methods of waste disposal.

ü Neglect of the principles of hygiene in messing and

cookhouses.

ü Failure to purify drinking water.

ü Contaminated by flies, dust or human carriers of the

disease (infected hands).

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 ROUTE OF TRANSMISSION
Intestinal Group
Examples:
Diarrhoea.
Dysentery.
Typhoid fever.
Cholera.
worm infections.
poliomyelitis.
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 ROUTE OF TRANSMISSION
Insect Borne Group
Route. Insect picks up germs of a
disease when they bite an infected
man or animal. The insect then goes
to the healthy man and bites him, in
that way infecting him with the
disease, e.g. mosquitoes spread
malaria and yellow fever in this way.

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 ROUTE OF TRANSMISSION
Insect Borne Group
Other methods are via insect:

a) Vomit – the way in which the flea transmits

plague.

a) Faeces – the way in which the louse spreads

epidemic typhus.

a) Hairs and feet – the way in which the fly can

transmit dysentery.

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 ROUTE OF TRANSMISSION
Animal Borne Group

Animals may infect man by biting or

licking an open would (as in the case
of a rabid animal)

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