Decontamination of anaesthetic equipment

Abstract

Awareness that some diseases are transmissible has existed for centuries. Hippocrates in 450 bc used wine or boiled water to irrigate wounds and, in the second century, Galen was reported to have boiled his instruments before use. In the middle ages, people suffering with leprosy and the severely ill were isolated from the local population. However, modern infection control was only started in the 19th century as a consequence of the work of Pasteur, Lister and other pioneers.