Injection Prevention: Standard and Expanded Precautions

Standard precautions are infection prevention techniques that apply in all health care settings and to all patients, regardless of their infection status. Standard precautions are rooted in the fact that all blood, body fluids (including secretions and excretions, except sweat), and open skin may have infectious agents.

Expanded Precautions, previously called transmission-based precautions, aim to control transmission of highly infectious agents or epidemiologically important infectious agents. Expanded Precautions include Contact Precautions, Droplet Precautions, Airborne Infection Isolation, and Protective Environment.