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What is the purpose of disinfection?
to reduce numbers of pathogenic microogranisms and the spread of disease
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Define antispetics
chemical agents that kill or prevent the growth of microorganisms on living tissue
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Define disinfectants
chemical agents that kill or prevent growth of microorganisms on non-living objects
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Define sterilizers
do completely kill all microorganisms
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Define spore
thick walled, inactive, resistant form of certain bacteria
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Define nosocomial infection
acquired in the hospital, likely to be resistant
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List 5 characteristics of an ideal disinfectant.
- broad spectrum
- safe for living tissue and non-living objects
- convenient - easy to use
- stable - not inactivated by organic materal
- inexpensive
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Which is easier to kill - a virus with a lipid envelope, or a virus without a lipid envelope (naked virus)?
enveloped virus
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Does parvovirus have a lipid envelope? Is it easy to disinfect?
no - parvovirus is not affected by many disinfectants
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What are the 2 main reasons it is imporatn to throroughly clean an object before applying a disinfectant?
- improve physical contact of the disinfectant to the object
- also, organic matter inactivates many disinfectants
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What is organic matter? Give 3 examples of the sort of organic matter encountered in veterinary hospitals that may inactivate disinfectants.
- matter associated with life, is or has been part of a living animal, contains carbon
- feces, blood, pus, tissue debris, etc.
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Why is it important to rinse off objects after disinfection?
to prevent disinfectant residues from coming into contact with the patient - especially imporatnt with objects like endotracheal tubes.
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Why is it important to dry off objects after washing and rinsing, and before putting the objects into a disinfecting solution?
to prevent excess water from diluting out the disinfectant and making it less effective
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If you mix up a batch of disinfectant and make it too dilute (concentration too low), what are the disadvantages?
- not effective
- waste of time
- effort
- money
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If you mix up a batch of disinfectant and you get the concentration too high, what are the disadvantages?
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Do most disinfectants work better at warmer or at colder temperatures?
warmer
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Does it matter if an object to be disinfected has a scrated, pitted, or rough surface? Why or why not?
yes - provides places of microorganisms to hide and avoid the disinfectant
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Does contact time of the object with the disinfectant matter? How?
yes - most disinfectants require certain amount of contact time to kill microorganisms - the longer the better - follow manufacturer's directions
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