Standard and transmission-based precautions: PPE and isolation
How organisms spread in hospital and which precautions block each route, contact, droplet and airborne precautions with organism-specific durations, negative-pressure rooms and air-change maths, PPE order and respirator fit, and how to prioritise scarce single rooms.
Tier 1Medical sciences concept
Written with AI assistance and fact-checked against the sources below. For exam study, not clinical decisions. How notes are made
At a glance
- Standard precautions apply to every patient: hand hygiene, PPE chosen by the task, respiratory hygiene, safe sharps, aseptic technique, cleaning and reprocessing.
- Transmission-based precautions are added when standard precautions won't block a known or suspected route: contact, droplet or airborne. Some organisms need two.
- Start precautions on suspicion, not on the result. A febrile returned traveller with a vesicular rash goes into an airborne room before the PCR comes back.
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Sources
- Australian Guidelines for the Prevention and Control of Infection in HealthcareAU/NZAustralian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care and NHMRC, 2019 edition, with subsequent dated updates; accessed November 2026
- National Safety and Quality Health Service Standards: Preventing and Controlling Infections StandardAU/NZAustralian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care, NSQHS Standards, second edition (2021)
- 2007 Guideline for Isolation Precautions: Preventing Transmission of Infectious Agents in Healthcare SettingsCDC Healthcare Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee (Siegel et al.), 2007, updated 2023
- Guidelines for Environmental Infection Control in Health-Care Facilities (air changes and contaminant removal times)CDC HICPAC, 2003, updated 2019
- Last updated
- 14 November 2026
What changed
- 14 November 2026 Turnstile bot check on sign-in and signed-out feedback