INFECTION PREVENTION AND CONTROL GENERAL PRINCIPLES AND ROLE OF MICROBIOLOGY LABORATORY

The healthcare-associated infections HAIs are international health problem and its major cause of death worldwide with wide range complications among healthcare workers, patients, and visitors, And these complications are very expensive from the humanitarian and economic aspects and cause increase in healthcare resources waste as increase medications and medical supplies consumption, intensive uses of diagnostic laboratory services, sharp rising hospital's admission rates and other harmful effects on patient's life. As currently, medical laboratory specialists are the cornerstones of diagnosis of infectious diseases, the number of medical laboratories science colleges has increased, with a high number of highly qualified specialists with a strong background on microbiology and epidemiology of various disciplines that include clinical chemistry, microbiology, hematology, immunology, and histopathology. Those specialists work in laboratories of varying sizes and resources. Most of those specialists perform most tasks from different disciplines, including the microbiological tests. Therefore, the junior laboratory specialist must be fully familiar with the basic tasks and activities of infection control and prevention. The aim of this review is to know the general principles of infection control and prevention and the role of medical laboratory specialists, hoping that the medical laboratory specialists will play a valuable and effective role in the field of infection control and prevention, thereby preventing hospital infections and antibiotic resistance and providing a safe environment for the patient, health care providers and the community.