What are standard precautions?

• A. Guidelines for preventing the spread of infections from exposure to blood and bodily fluids
• B. Guidelines for isolating patients
• C. Guidelines for food safety
• D. Guidelines for social distancing

Answer: (A)

Standard precautions are the fundamental infection-control practices used in healthcare to prevent transmission of infections during all patient care, applied to every patient regardless of their infection status. They focus on treating all blood and body fluids (except sweat) as potentially infectious and use protective measures to prevent exposure. This includes hand hygiene before and after contact, using appropriate personal protective equipment (gloves, gowns, masks, eye protection) when exposure to blood or bodily fluids is possible, safe handling and disposal of sharps, safe injection practices, respiratory hygiene, and thorough environmental cleaning. The idea is to minimize risk from any patient and in any care activity, not only when an infection is known.

This aligns with preventing spread from exposure to blood and bodily fluids. The other options describe isolating patients (isolation precautions used for known or suspected infections), food safety, and social distancing, which are not the standard precautions used in routine patient care.