A systemic infection is when the microorganisms spread throughout the body, usually in the bloodstream. They can make people feel really ill and can include measles, whooping cough and meningitis. The people who are most at risk include the sick, elderly babies and children. According to Ayling (2007) people with a systemic infection will be flushed and have red dry skin, they will be chilled and shivering, they may vomit and will have a change in their behavior.
How is infection transmitted? Who is at risk? Would the effects be the same on each?
Transmission is the transfer of an infection from one person to the other. If you are colonized it means some of the strains have been let loose in the human body, but they don’t cause disease so the person will never experience any of the signs and symptoms. Ayling (2007) say that this is known as healthy bacteria because whenever a pathogenic bacteria enters the body it protects them. Transmission can take place through the air, such as when you breathe and speak. Also, an infection could be transmitted through the blood, for example with a contaminated needle.
Anyone who is working with a sick person, such as a doctor would be at risk as if someone is unable to fight the disease there is a much higher risk of passing it on to someone else. For example, a colonized person could pass on pathogens to someone else using direct contact as they don’t show any signs of illness. The other person will then become ill as they aren’t colonized but the pathogens have entered their body.
Also the chance of an infection being passed on in someone else’s blood also depends on how you come into contact with the infected blood. The risk of an infection being passed on is highest if your skin is broken or punctured as you come into contact with the infected blood. For example, if you puncture your skin with a used needle or other sharp object that has infected blood on it
What would make a person more susceptible? How could the infections affect these people? A person would be more susceptible if their immune system hadn’t developed properly such as in babies. Their body wouldn’t be able to handle it and therefore they would get a cold quickly.
What are the PIES effects of:
Hepatitis on a 20 year old care worker with a needle-stick injury: This infection attacks the liver; it causes you to have diarrhea and a loss of appetite. Also, you will find that your skin has turned yellow and you have mouth fever.
The PIES of this would be physical as the twenty year old would be weak physically as his body will be attacked from the inside. Furthermore, the needle-stick injury may have caused him to have got an infection which has spread around the body and become a systemic infection as it hasn’t been treated properly.
Intellectually, he will be learning about hepatitis and medications as he didn’t know before. Also as before he wasn’t sensory impaired he never had to learn how to communicate with people that you couldn’t hear or see but now he is getting the help he needs and is learning new things.
Also, socially they wouldn’t be able to go out and work as they would be in pain and find it difficult to move around, this would also mean they wouldn’t be able to take part in activities with friends and family.
MRSA on an eighty year old man, recovering from major surgery: This is an infection that causes disease and gets into the body through an open wound. It