This glossary was created with input from members of PICNet, PHAC Infection Control Guidelines and the BC Ministry of Health. A list of references is available here. Definitions will be updated frequently and may change or be removed. Please send us your comments and feedback by email to picnet@phsa.ca.

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Immunocompromised: Increased susceptibility to infection e.g. HIV/AIDS, chemotherapy or blood malignancy (9).

Incidence density: The average person-time incidence rate. (17)

Incidence rate: the rate at which new events occur in a population. (17)

Incubation Period: The time interval between invasion by an infectious agent and appearance of the first sign or symptom of the disease.  (17)

Infection:An invasion of the body by microorganism(s) that multiply and cause an interaction between the host and the organism. The interaction may only be a detectable immune response such as a TB skin test conversion (subclinical infection) or produce signs and symptoms resulting from the altered physiology and/or associated cell damage (clinical disease). (1)

Infection Control: Measures practiced by health care personnel in health care facilities to decrease transmission and acquisition of infectious agents (e.g. proper hand hygiene, scrupulous work practices, use of personal protective equipment (PPE) [masks or respirators, gloves, gowns, and eye protection]; infection control measures are based on how an infectious agent is transmitted and include standard, contact, droplet, and airborne precautions (5).

Infectious: Caused by infection or capable of being transmitted (9).

Infection Prevention and Control Professional(ICP): Trained individual responsible for a health care setting’s infection prevention and control activities.

Infectious Diseases: Also referred to as communicable disease, this refers to an illness due to a specific infectious agent or its toxic products that arises through transmission of that agent or its products from an infected person, animal, or reservoir to a susceptible host, either directly or indirectly through an intermediate plant or animal host, vector, or the inanimate environment (11).

Infectious Waste: That portion of biomedical waste that is capable of producing infectious disease (8).

Information Technology (IT): The common term for the entire spectrum of technologies for information processing, including software, hardware, communications technologies and related services (7).

Intermediate Level Disinfection: Level of disinfection required for some semicritical items. Intermediate level disinfectants kill vegetative bacteria, most viruses, and most fungi, but not resistant bacterial spores (7).

Isolation: The physical separation of infected individuals from those uninfected for the period of communicability of a particular disease (9).

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