Airborne precautions are a set of infection control measures, designed specifically to prevent and control the transmission of infectious agents spread by small particles in the respiratory size small range (<5μ) to patients/clients and health and social care workers during provision of care delivery.
These airborne precautions are an element of the Transmission Based Precautions. Not all elements may be required for every patient/client or situation and further specialist advice should be sought from local Infection Control/Health Protection Teams as required.
Transmission Based/additional precautions are always applied in addition to Standard Infection Control Precautions.
Policy
Elements of this policy have been updated in line with the 2009 review of the Droplet Precautions Policy. A full review of the airborne policy will be undertaken in 2010. Details of the changes made to the policy can be found in the summary of changes.
Literature Review
Additional Literature Reviews