Procedures to prevent infection and the transmission of infection are used in a variety of domestic situations. These may be categorised into four main areas;

• General home hygiene
• Food hygiene
• Personal hygiene
• Home healthcare

In the following sections, guidelines for infection control in each of these areas are described. It is important to restate, however, that general home maintenance hygiene, food hygiene, personal hygiene and home healthcare should not be regarded as separate issues, and the basic underlying principles are the same for all these hygiene areas.