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Comparative assessment of the effectiveness of three disinfection protocols for reducing bacterial contamination of stethoscopes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 November 2019

Patricia Sebastian Marcos ,
Darren Hermes  and
Mellora Sharman Open the ORCID record for Mellora Sharman [Opens in a new window]
Patricia Sebastian Marcos
Affiliation:
Small Animal Referral Centre, Animal Health Trust, Kentford, Suffolk, United Kingdom
Darren Hermes
Affiliation:
Diagnostic Microbiology, Animal Health Trust, Kentford, Suffolk, United Kingdom
Mellora Sharman*
Affiliation:
Small Animal Referral Centre, Animal Health Trust, Kentford, Suffolk, United Kingdom
*
Author for correspondence: Mellora Sharman, Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

In a crossover study, 30 stethoscopes were assessed and disinfected using 3 protocols: isopropyl alcohol, a quaternary ammonia or biguanide disinfectant, and ultraviolet germicidal irradiation (UVGI). All protocols effectively reduced bacterial loads, but UVGI was less effective at higher contamination levels (P = .0004). The effectiveness of each intervention was short in duration.

Type
Concise Communication
Information
Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology , Volume 41 , Issue 1 , January 2020 , pp. 120 - 123
Copyright
© 2019 by The Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America. All rights reserved. 

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Footnotes

PREVIOUS PRESENTATION: This material was presented, in part, at the European College of Veterinary Internal Medicine (ECVIM) Congress on September 14–16, 2017, in St. Julian’s, Malta.

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