title: [Infection control in urology: standard and isolation precautions].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To provide a structured review of good hygiene practices in infection control.
  
  
  METHODS
  A review of existing recommendations on standard precautions, isolation precautions and specific recommendations in infection control.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Isolation precautions complement standard precautions when a patient is identified as a carrier of bacteria showing resistance to antibiotics, virulence characteristics and/or epidemic potential. Full compliance with hand hygiene recommendations and standard precautions is mandatory as it optimizes safety when patient's viral and/or bacterial status is unknown. Acknowledging the routes of transmission, the value of individual protection equipment and good hygiene practices is therefore crucial in modern infection control. For specific micro-organisms, isolation precautions are needed against airborne, droplets and/or contact cross-contamination routes. Within isolation precautions, contact precautions are the most widely indicated as they control the risks of contamination from germs involved in cutaneous or enteric infections and of transmission of multi-resistant bacteria (MRB). In addition, specific recommendations have been defined for emerging resistant MRB.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  MRB are becoming worldwide a major issue in public health. Reducing cross-contamination is, with lesser and better use of antibiotics, one of the main avenue in their control.
authors.affiliation: UOH, CHU de Toulouse, hôpital Rangueil, 1, avenue Jean-Poulhès, 31059 Toulouse cedex, France. Electronic address: malavaud.s@gmail.com.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Malavaud
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D017053:Infection Control / Q000592:standards*; D010356:Patient Isolation; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic; D014552:Urinary Tract Infections / Q000517:prevention & control*