Routine and terminal cleaning of isolation rooms and cohort areas in healthcare settings, and terminal cleaning of wards following outbreaks or increased incidence of infection

There is strong evidence that contaminated environmental surfaces contribute to the transmission of pathogens in healthcare settings. As such, environmental decontamination has an important role to play in the prevention and control of healthcare associated infection.

Adequate decontamination of the patient environment is particularly important to minimise the risk of cross infection where patients are known or suspected to have an infectious agent, i.e. in circumstances where Transmission Based Precautions (TBPs) should be applied.