Table of Diseases

This section of the manual outlines some of the common diseases/conditions and what precautions are required to prevent their transmission or spread.

For each disease/condition, information is available on the following:

Transmission based precautions – what precautions are required when caring for a patient with the disease/condition
Infective material – where the organism causing the disease/condition is most likely to be found
Duration of precautions – the length of time precautions should remain in place to prevent on-going transmission or spread to other individuals
Isolation in a single room – whether isolation in a single room is necessary; this will ensure optimal placement of patients whilst they are considered infectious
Comments – additional comments including whether the disease/condition is notifiable under The Public Health (Northern Ireland) Act 1967.

This list is neither complete nor authoritative and will be updated as and when required.

Please use the search box below to filter the table by keywords. You can also re-order the table by clicking on any of the column headers.

Disease / Condition	Transmission Based Precautions	Infective Material	Duration of Precautions	Isolation in Single Room	Comments
Tuberculosis (non-pulmonary)	Standard			No
Cat Scratch Disease	Standard			No
Rabies	Standard	Animal bite	Duration of illness	Yes	Notifiable Disease
Yellow Fever	Standard	Blood	Duration of hospitalisation	Yes (if actively bleeding)	Notifiable Disease
Malaria	Standard	Blood		No	Notifiable Disease
HIV and AIDS	Standard	Blood and bodily fluids		No (unless bleeding)	Life long infection
Parvovirus B19 (associated transient aplastic crisis or red cell crisis)	Droplet	Blood and body products	For 7days after the onset of the transient aplastic or red cell crisis	Yes
Parvovirus B19 (immunocompromised patient with chronic parvovirus infection)	Droplet	Blood and body products	Duration of hospitalisation	Yes
Ebola-Marburg Viral Diseases	Airborne and Contact	Blood and secretions	Duration of hospitalisation	Yes	Notifiable disease
Leptospirosis	Standard	Blood and urine		No	Notifiable disease
Lassa Fever	Airborne and Contact	Blood, bodily fluids and respiratory secretions	Duration of illness	Yes	Hazard Group 4 pathogen - transfer to local ID unit
Marburg Virus	Airborne and Contact	Blood, bodily fluids and respiratory secretions	Duration of illness	Yes	Negative pressure - transfer to local ID unit
Creutzfeltd-Jakob Disease (CJD)	Standard	Blood, brain tissue, spinal fluid		No	Some waste will require disposal as cytotoxic waste
Botulism	Standard	Contaminated food		No
Aspergillosis	Standard	Decaying vegetation such as piles of leaves or compost piles	Duration of illness	No
Actinomycosis	Standard	Dental plaque/tonsillar crypts	Irregular	Yes (while infectious)
Gonorrhoea	Standard	Discharge		No
Erysipelas	Contact	Discharge from infected lesions	For 24hours after start of effective treatment	Yes	Causative organisms may include Group A Streptococcus, Staphylococcus aureus and other Groups of Streptococci
Streptococcus Group A (major wound or burn)	Contact	Exudate/pus	Until 24hours after start of effective therapy	Yes
Giardiasis	Contact	Faeces	Duration of illness	Yes	Notifiable disease
Amebiasis (amoebiasis)	Contact	Faeces	Duration of hospitalisation	Yes	Those at risk live in areas of poor sanitation, crowding, travellers to endemic areas and persons partaking in oral-anal sexual activity
Typhoid Fever and Paratyphoid Fevers	Contact	Faeces	Until asymptomatic	Yes (if symptomatic)	Notifiable Disease
Ascariasis (roundworm)	Standard	Faeces	Duration of illness	If available
Hepatitis A	Contact	Faeces	First 2 weeks of illness but no more than 1 week after onset of jaundice (except in a Neonatal ICU setting where prolonged precautions must be considered)	Yes	Notifiable disease
Hepatitis E	Contact	Faeces	Duration of hospitalisation	Yes	Notifiable disease
Campylobacter enteritis	Standard	Faeces	Until asymptomatic	Yes	Notifiable disease
Salmonellosis	Standard	Faeces	Until asymptomatic	Yes (if symptomatic)	Notifiable Disease
Clostridium difficile	Contact	Faeces	Until asymptomatic with formed stools	Yes
Shigellosis	Standard	Faeces	Until asymptomatic	Yes (if symptomatic)
Listeriosis	Standard	Faeces		No (unless neonates)
Cryptosporidiosis	Standard	Faeces	Duration of illness	Yes (whilst symptomatic)	Notifiable disease
E-coli Diarrhoeal Diseases	Contact	Faeces	Until asymptomatic	Yes	Notifiable disease; infected persons should not be employed to handle food or provide care until 2 successive negative faecal samples are obtained (collected 24hours apart and not sooner than 48hours after the last dose of antimicrobials
Enteroviral infection (infants and young children)	Contact	Faeces	Duration of illness	No
Enteroviral infection (adults)	Standard	Faeces	Duration of illness	No
Rotavirus	Contact	Faeces and possibly respiratory secretions	Duration of illness	Yes
Poliomyelitis	Contact	Faeces and respiratory secretions		Yes (if symptomatic with diarrhoea)	Notifiable Disease
Hand Foot and Mouth	Contact	Faeces or respiratory secretions	Duration of hospitalisation	Yes
Clostridium perfringens (foodborne)	Standard	Food		No
Chlamydial infections (STD)	Standard	Genetial secretions	Until asymptomatic	No
Human papillomavirus infection	Standard	Infected lesion		No
Ringworm	Standard	Infected lesions		No
Staphlococcus scalded skin syndrome (Ritter's disease)	Contact	Infected lesions	Duration of illness	Yes
Hepatitis B	Contact	Infective bodily fluids	Duration of hospitalisation	Yes (if risk of bleeding)	Notifiable disease
Hepatitis C	Contact	Infective bodily fluids	Duration of hospitalisation	Yes (if risk of bleeding)	Notifiable disease
Hepatitis D	Contact	Infective bodily fluids	Duration of hospitalisation	Yes (if risk of bleeding)	Notifiable disease
Scabies	Contact	Infested area	Until 24hours after application of effective therapy	Yes	Notifiable Disease
Anthrax	Standard	Lesion fluid	Duration of hospitalisation	Yes	Notifiable disease
Syphilis	Standard	Lesion secretions and blood		No	Skin lesions of primary and secondary syphilis may be highly infective
Impetigo	Contact	Lesions	Until 24hours after start of effective therapy	Yes
Gonococcal opthalmia neonatorum	Contact	Maternal cervix	Until 24hours after administration of effective therapy	Yes
Candidiasis	Standard	Mouth, skin, genital secretions	Until asymptomatic	No	Contact precautions required for neonates
Threadworm	Standard	Mucous secretion from worm		No
Tetanus	Standard	No direct person to person transmission		No
Streptococcus Group B (Neonatal Unit only)	Standard	Possible faeces