Which option best describes disease transmission from person to person?

Which option best describes disease transmission from person to person?

• A. Vaccination
• B. Hand washing
• C. Isolation
• D. Wearing gloves

Answer: (B)

Stopping the spread hinges on interrupting how infections move between people, and hands are a primary vehicle for transmission. When hands pick up microbes from contaminated surfaces or an infected person and then touch the face, mouth, nose, or another person, pathogens can be transferred. Thorough hand washing with soap and water (or hand sanitizer when soap isn’t available) removes or kills many of these microbes, breaking that chain of transmission at its most common point of contact. Other measures—vaccination, isolation, and wearing gloves—are important protective or containment strategies, but they don’t describe the act of transmission itself. Hand hygiene directly targets the main way diseases spread from person to person by contact.

Stopping the spread hinges on interrupting how infections move between people, and hands are a primary vehicle for transmission. When hands pick up microbes from contaminated surfaces or an infected person and then touch the face, mouth, nose, or another person, pathogens can be transferred. Thorough hand washing with soap and water (or hand sanitizer when soap isn’t available) removes or kills many of these microbes, breaking that chain of transmission at its most common point of contact. Other measures—vaccination, isolation, and wearing gloves—are important protective or containment strategies, but they don’t describe the act of transmission itself. Hand hygiene directly targets the main way diseases spread from person to person by contact.