Introduction:

Knowledge about prevention and control of the Health Care-associated infections (HCAIs) is a decisive factor for medical students, being these the most vulnerable to acquire or be a source of these infections; however, insufficient knowledge about these measures or non-correlation with practice is evidenced.

Objective:

To evaluate the knowledge of the medical students that initiates and finishes their last year in relation to the prevention and control of the health care-associated infections.

Method:

A cross-sectional, descriptive study, included 216 students of the last year of Alberto Hurtado School of Medicine in the period 2016-2017 a validated online questionnaire was applied through a pilot test.

Results:

Of a sample of 216 participants, 84.72% knew the basic measure for respiratory hygiene, only 15.28% knew the minimum time necessary for hand washing. On the other hand, 48.15% washed their hands before and after contact with the patient. The 68.98% were aware that they can reuse the N95 mask if it is stored in a sealed plastic bag; also most of them recognized personal items as fomites. In addition, greater knowledge was evidenced in those who just finished the internship in the subjects of respiratory hygiene and use of the mask N95.

Conclusions:

Knowledge about the prevention and control of the HCAIs in the students of the last year of human medicine is not according to the recommended.