Q. Modern infection control recommendations?
Concern about transmission of disease has been expressed for thousand of years. Written guidelines for "disease control" are found in Bible specially in books of Leveticus and Numbers. Italian physician Girolamo Fracastorious is generally credited as the first to recognise it in 1546, the existence of tiny living particles that cause 'catching' or contagious disease. Micro organisms existence was established with discovery of simple microscope by Antony Van Leeuwenhoek in 1667, relationship of these little animals as he called "animalcules"(bacteria, yeast, protozoa.), to disease was not established until " The Golden Age of Microbiology" in mid to late 1800.
Semmelweis in Veinna and Holmes in US first recognised importance of hand washing to prevent spread of disease agents. Pasteur and Tyndall recognised use of heat to destroy vegetative bacteria and resistant bacterial spores. Lord J. Lister demonstrated that boiling the instruments and washing the hands and surgical lining with phenol before surgery greatly reduces the complications.
The modern infection control recommendations and sterilization guidelines were stated by the CDC in 1973. Comprehensive guidelines for infection control came into effect in Dec 1991 and are continually being upgraded to include the advances in field of sterilization.