Infectious diseases have been with us throughout recorded history.At times, they have had a tremendous impact on history.
At their worst, infectious diseases can tax the resources of a community hospital.
"The most common diseases we see are wound infections, influenza, viral infections. We also see once in a while some of the diseases from the western Pacific, we see dengue,” said John Halloran, infection control coordinator at Castle Medical Center.
In recent months, the islands have seen several cases of dengue fever.
"There's actually four different types of dengue. We've only seen one here in Hawaii and that's carried by mosquitoes. It's a mosquito to man transmission and back and forth. The best way to avoid that is to stay out of the outside during dawn and dusk when mosquitoes are most active,” said Halloran.
And Halloran says to use a repellant that includes DEET. Ironically, one of the places you're most likely to get an infectious disease is the hospital
"It's almost the perfect storm. You have the sickest patients coming in with the sickest, worst bugs possible and then you have such a vulnerable population because people's immune systems are down,” said Laura Westphal, quality control coordinator at Castle Medical Center.
That's why the hospital takes a two-pronged attack.
"One is to cure infections that come in with our antibiotics and our treatments and the other part of it is to prevent the spread of infection,” said Westphal.
Castle Medical Center insists on flu vaccinations for its health care workers and isolation rooms for extremely infectious patients. But there is one more thing Westphal believes can slow the spread of infectious disease.
"Hand-washing, hand-washing, hand-washing,” she said. “It's the number one defense that we all have against infection, whether you're in the hospital, whether you're out in public. I can't emphasize that enough."
