Infection control is incredibly important. It is a common focus in healthcare settings, but anyone can benefit from infection control, and you can use these tips in your work environment or at home. If you would like to better protect yourself and your family from infection, check out these four infection control tips.

1. Wash Hands

Naturally, keep your hands clean. Anytime you touch something that may be contaminated and anytime you touch something you don't want to contaminate, you should wash your hands. For example, you are dressing a bad abrasion on your child's knee. You should wash your hands first to ensure you don't spread germs to their open wound. Similarly, you should wash your hands after to ensure no germs from the wound got on you.

When washing your hands, you need to wet, lather, scrub, rinse, and dry. Scrubbing should take no less than 20 seconds. If you don't have access to soap and water, use hand sanitizer with at least 60 percent alcohol. Hand sanitizers should not be used if your hands are visibly dirty, and they may not get rid of all types of germs or hazards.

2. PPE

Personal protection equipment or PPE is commonly seen in the hospital, but it can be beneficial at home or in work settings too. PPE refers to any equipment that acts as a barrier between you and the other person/germs. This includes gloves, masks, eye protection, hazard suits, etc.

In most cases, you won't need a hazard suit to treat your family or help a coworker, but you should always wear gloves when helping with any open wound/broken skin, and you should wear a mask if you are sick and/or want to limit the spread of your germs to other people.

3. Sharps Safety

The term sharps refers to anything that can easily penetrate the skin. It often refers to used needles, but it can also include scalpels, lancets, broken glass, etc. Naturally, these sharps can also penetrate gloves, so you must be careful when disposing of them, especially items like used needles.

Some people have conditions that require regular injections or the use of lancets. If this is the case, there should be a biohazard disposal container for sharps. This is the only safe way to dispose of these kinds of materials.

4. Disinfection

Last, disinfecting surfaces is a great way to kill many infectious germs. Naturally, you can disinfect any surface you want, but it is imperative to regularly clean common areas, such as the refrigerator, the stove, the microwave, the copy machine, the printer, etc.

Since these areas have a lot of different people touching them, they can harbor many germs. You should also clean surfaces if you sneeze on them or touch them after sneezing into your hand.

Infection control is an important goal for everyone because it affects everyone. If you are sick of seeing diseases run rampant through your house or work, it's time to act. Get started today by implementing infection control procedures in your house and at work. Contact a company that sells infection control products to learn more.