Infection control

A product that trains the immune system to protect the body against a specific disease.

An antibiotic, given by IV for serious gram-positive infections or by mouth for one bowel infection.

A very contagious infection caused by the varicella-zoster virus; also called chickenpox.

A live vaccine given as a shot under the skin to protect against chickenpox.

The virus that causes chickenpox and, years later, can wake up again to cause shingles.

A lung infection that starts 48 hours or more after a client has been put on a breathing machine through a tube.

An infection of the stomach and intestines caused by a virus, such as norovirus or rotavirus.

An illness caused by a virus, a very small germ that can multiply only inside living cells.

The amount of a virus in a person's blood, usually measured in copies per milliliter.

Able to kill viruses, or inactivate them so they can no longer infect.

How strongly a germ is able to cause disease, or how severe the disease it causes is.

A tiny germ, much smaller than a bacterium, that can only multiply inside the living cells of another organism.

Vancomycin-resistant enterococci: Enterococcus bacteria that the antibiotic vancomycin can no longer kill.

Vancomycin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus: staph bacteria that the antibiotic vancomycin can no longer kill.