Avoiding Infection:

As the immunosuppressive medication lowers your immune system, the risk of infection is higher. You need to protect yourself consciously from infection following your surgery. These are some of the precautions, mostly personal hygiene, you can take:

• Wash and dry your hands often with water and soap, even between your fingers, when;
  • After going to the toilet;
  • cough or sneeze into your hands and if you use tissues, throw them immediately into a trash bin;
  • after handling raw meat;
• Keep your hands away from face and mouth;
• Stay away from people who have colds or other infections. If you think you have been exposed to any disease, contact your doctor immediately;
• Use separate eating utensils and cups from others;
• Use separate grooming and cutting kit from others;
• Wear a face mask when surrounded by people;
• Ask your friends and family to visit you only when they are well;
• Avoid working in the garden or potting soil for the first 6 months or thereabout. Barring any complications, you can potter in the garden with gloves on thereafter;
• Avoid handling or coming into contact with animal’s waste. Do not clean bird cages, fish or turtle tanks or cat litter. Have someone to bring it out of your home and clean it thoroughly;>
• Avoid vaccines that consist of live viruses, such as Sabin oral polio, measles, German measles, mumps, yellow fever or smallpox. Please inform your transplant surgeon and physician if you or your family intend to receive vaccinations;
• Do not swim in lakes or community pools during the high-risk period;
• Eat well cooked meat;
• Consider getting the flu vaccines annually after your transplant surgeon has okayed it;
• Practice safe sex to avoid contracting sexually transmitted diseases;
• If the recipient is a child, please inform the school and have them notify you if there is any communicable disease that may be circulating in the school.

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