indirectly from an infected person to the environment (for example toys, door handles, bench tops, bedding and toilets) and then to another person who comes in contact with the contaminated environmental source.
Germs can enter the body through the:
Some infections can be spread in several different ways.
There are other ways of describing how germs are spread that are commonly used. Germs can be spread through sexual contact, which is usually through semen and vaginal secretions (body fluids), but can also occur through contact with mucus membranes. Germs can spread through food or water. Many but not all the germs spread in this way are through contact with faeces and then with the mouth (faeco-oral). Germs can also spread from a mother to her unborn child, usually though blood (body fluids) but also through contact with skin or mucous membranes during delivery.
Some infections are spread when an infected person talks, coughs or sneezes small droplets containing infectious agents into the air. Due to their size, these droplets in the air travel only a short distance (around a metre) from the infected person before falling. The droplets in the air may be breathed in by those nearby. Spread can also occur by touching the nose or mouth with droplet contaminated hands.
Some infections are spread when an infected person talks, breathes, coughs or sneezes tiny particles containing infectious agents into the air. These are called small particle aerosols. Due to their tiny size, small particle aerosols can travel long distances on air currents and remain suspended in the air for minutes to hours. These small particle aerosols may be breathed in by another person.
Spread through faeces and then the mouth (faecal-oral spread)
Some infections are spread when microscopic amounts of faeces (poo) from an infected person with symptoms or an infected person without symptoms (a carrier) are taken in by another person by mouth. The faeces may be passed:
directly from soiled hands to the mouth
indirectly by way of objects, surfaces, food or water soiled with faeces.
Some infections are spread directly when skin or mucous membrane (the thin moist lining of many parts of the body such as the nose, mouth, throat and genitals) comes into contact with the skin or mucous membrane of another person. Infections are spread indirectly when skin or mucous membrane comes in contact with contaminated objects or surfaces.
Examples of diseases spread by skin or mucous membrane contact:
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