Preventing the Spread of Infectious Diseases in the Veterinary Hospital

Meri Hall, RVT, CVT, LVT, LATG, VTS (SAM), veterinary technician of internal medicine, from Veterinary Specialty Hospital of Palm Beach Gardens, discusses some steps that can prevent the spread of infectious diseases in the veterinary hospital.

Interview Transcript (slightly modified for readability)

“With veterinary medicine, we made so many involved decisions in the last 20 years, when it comes to infectious disease and the control of the spread of the disease. We all need to be hypervigilant, [and] we have to realize that every patient has that potential to be infectious, because a lot of our disease processes are not manifested in clinical science for every animal. We have to be aware of that when dealing with our patient.

Use of gloves and protective equipment for the staff to help prevent that [infection from spreading] to other animals is something that we’ve started doing. I think that in the profession I see [this practice] going a lot farther and we’re going to be a lot better at preventing that disease process.”