Many nursery routines are based on the belief that newborn infants are exquisitely susceptible to certain infectious agents carried by personnel working in the nursery. Empirically, protective measures to minimize the possible transfer of these agents to infants have been employed. These include: exclusion of parents and visitors from the nursery, protective over-gowns or scrub dresses, hairnets or caps, masks and gloves for personnel, isolation incubators, frequent air changes of the room through forced ventilation, nasal antibioties cream for personnel, handwashing with hexachlorophene-containing detergents, protective antiseptics applied to the skin of infants as bathing solutions or skin lotions, and so forth.