Transmissible infections in critical care.

Personnel caring for critically ill patients in emergency or trauma care settings, or in adult and pediatric intensive care units, face considerable risk of acquiring infections from their patients. Obvious infections are less hazardous than obscure, unsuspected, or unreported ones. Although postexposure prophylaxis is available in some cases, it can add its own risks for uninformed persons. Examples of inadvertent but unnecessary exposures, with their consequences, are discussed in this article. Emphasis is on how ethical and considerate behavior toward others, along with clinical awareness, diagnostic clues, and early communication with the infection control service, could have prevented these exposures and might do so in other instances.