Focus of infection

For the theory of local infections causing other diseases in the body, see focal infection theory

A focus of infection is a place containing whatever epidemiological factors are needed for transmission of an infection. Any focus of infection will have a source of infection, and other common traits of such a place include a human community, a vector population, and environmental characteristics adequate for spreading infection.[1]

Examples of foci of infection

Water pump in 1854 London

This pump on Broadwick Street is a monument to public health intervention

In 1854 London physician John Snow discovered that people who drank from a particular water pump contracted cholera, and proposed that drinking this water from this pump was the cause of the illness.[2] At the time people did not readily believe germ theory of disease, instead favoring miasma theory.[2] The discovery of the water pump as a source of infection set a precedent which helped establish epidemiology as a science.[2]

Gay bathhouses, particularly in 1980s

A gay bathhouse is a place where men who have sex with men meet for sex. In the 1980s at the advent of HIV/AIDS many men who used bathhouses for sex developed AIDS as a consequence of their having sex without using safe sex practices for the prevention of HIV/AIDS.[3] Consequently, public health policies found bathhouses to be a place to target for public health intervention.[3]

Child daycare

Childcare infection is the spread of infection during childcare, typically because of contact among children in daycare or school.[4] This happens when groups of children meet in a childcare environment, and there any individual with an infectious disease may spread it to the entire group. Commonly spread diseases include influenza-like illness and enteric illnesses, such as diarrhea among babies using diapers. It is uncertain how these diseases spread, but hand washing reduces some risk of transmission and increasing hygiene in other ways also reduces risk of infection.[5][6]

References

  1. ↑ Last, ed. Miquel Porta ; assoc. ed. Sander Greenland, John M. (2008). A dictionary of epidemiology (5th ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 112. ISBN 978-0195314502.
  2. 1 2 3 Johnson, Steven (2006). The ghost map : the story of London's most terrifying epidemic--and how it changed science, cities, and the modern world ([1st pbk. ed., 14th print.]. ed.). New York: Riverhead Books. ISBN 1594489254.
  3. 1 2 editors, William J. Woods, Diane Binson, (2003). Gay bathhouses and public health policy. New York: Harrington Park Press. ISBN 1560232730.
  4. ↑ Nesti, MM; Goldbaum, M (Jul–Aug 2007). "Infectious diseases and daycare and preschool education.". Jornal de pediatria 83 (4): 299–312. doi:10.2223/jped.1649. PMID 17632670.
  5. ↑ Warren-Gash, C; Fragaszy, E; Hayward, AC (Sep 2013). "Hand hygiene to reduce community transmission of influenza and acute respiratory tract infection: a systematic review.". Influenza and other respiratory viruses 7 (5): 738–49. doi:10.1111/irv.12015. PMID 23043518.
  6. ↑ Lee, MB; Greig, JD (Oct 2008). "A review of enteric outbreaks in child care centers: effective infection control recommendations.". Journal of environmental health 71 (3): 24–32, 46. PMID 18990930.
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