Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-r5fsc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-01T03:50:47.499Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Contaminated Portable Equipment Is a Potential Vector for Dissemination of Pathogens in the Intensive Care Unit

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 August 2017

Amrita John ,
Heba Alhmidi ,
Jennifer L. Cadnum ,
Annette L. Jencson  and
Curtis J. Donskey
Amrita John
Affiliation:
Department of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases and HIV Medicine, University Hospitals Case Medical Center, Cleveland, Ohio Research Service, Louis Stokes Cleveland Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Cleveland, Ohio
Heba Alhmidi
Affiliation:
Research Service, Louis Stokes Cleveland Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Cleveland, Ohio
Jennifer L. Cadnum
Affiliation:
Research Service, Louis Stokes Cleveland Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Cleveland, Ohio
Annette L. Jencson
Affiliation:
Research Service, Louis Stokes Cleveland Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Cleveland, Ohio
Curtis J. Donskey*
Affiliation:
Geriatric Research, Education and Clinical Center, Cleveland Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Cleveland, Ohio Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, Cleveland, Ohio.
*
Address correspondence to Curtis J. Donskey, MD, Geriatric Research, Education, and Clinical Center, Cleveland Veterans Affairs Medical Center, 10701 East Boulevard, Cleveland, Ohio 44106 ([email protected]).
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

A DNA marker inoculated onto shared portable equipment in surgical and medical intensive care units disseminated widely to surfaces in patient rooms and provider work areas and to other types of portable equipment. These results demonstrate the potential for contaminated portable equipment to serve as a vector for dissemination of pathogens.

Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol 2017;38:1247–1249

Type
Concise Communications
Information
Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology , Volume 38 , Issue 10 , October 2017 , pp. 1247 - 1249
Copyright
© 2017 by The Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America. All rights reserved 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

1. Donskey, CJ. Does improving surface cleaning and disinfection reduce health care-associated infections? Am J Infect Control 2013;41:S12–S19.Google Scholar
2. Dumford, DM 3rd, Nerandzic, MM, Eckstein, BC, Donskey, CJ. What is on that keyboard? Detecting hidden environmental reservoirs of Clostridium difficile during an outbreak associated with North American pulsed-field gel electrophoresis type 1 strains. Am J Infect Control 2009;37:15–19.Google Scholar
3. Jernigan, JA, Siegman-Igra, Y, Guerrant, RC, Farr, BM. A randomized crossover study of disposable thermometers for prevention of Clostridium difficile and other nosocomial infections. Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol 1998;19:494–499.Google Scholar
4. Peretz, A, Koiefman, A, Dinisman, E, Brodsky, D, Labay, K. Do wheelchairs spread pathogenic bacteria within hospital walls? World J Microbiol Biotechnol 2014;30:385–387.Google Scholar
5. Rutala WA, Weber DJ, and the Healthcare Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee (HICPAC). Guideline for disinfection and sterilization in healthcare facilities, 2008. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website. https://www.cdc.gov/hicpac/pdf/guidelines/Disinfection_Nov_2008.pdf. Published 2008. Accessed February 10, 2017.Google Scholar
6. Oelberg, DG, Joyner, SE, Jiang, X, Laborde, D, Islan, MP, Pickering, LK. Detection of pathogen transmission in neonatal nurseries using DNA markers as surrogate indicators. Pediatrics 2000;105:311–315.Google Scholar
7. Koganti, S, Alhmidi, H, Tomas, M, Cadnum, JL, Jencson, A, Donskey, CJ. Evaluation of hospital floors as a potential source of pathogen dissemination using a nonpathogenic virus as a surrogate marker. Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol 2016;37:1374–1377.Google Scholar
8. Sax, H, Allegranzi, B, Uçkay, I, Larson, E, Boyce, J, Pittet, D. ‘My five moments for hand hygiene’: a user-centered design approach to understand, train, monitor and report hand hygiene. J Hosp Infect 2007;67:9–21.Google Scholar
9. Tamimi, AH, Maxwell, S, Edmonds, SL, Gerba, CP. Impact of the use of an alcohol-based hand sanitizer in the home on reduction in probability of infection by respiratory and enteric viruses. Epidemiol Infect 2015;143:3335–3341.Google Scholar
10. Lopez, GU, Gerba, CP, Tamimi, AH, Kitajima, M, Maxwell, SL, Rose, JB. Transfer efficiency of bacteria and viruses from porous and nonporous fomites to fingers under different relative humidity conditions. Appl Environ Microbiol 2013;79:5728–5734.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed