BBC News Online: Health
23 February, 2000
Potentially deadly bacteria may be spread around hospitals
on common fabrics used for clothes, towels and curtains,
scientists have found.
Researchers from Ohio have found that harmful bacteria,
including antibiotic-resistant "superbugs" can
live on these materials for longer than three months.
It's not surprising that vancomycin-resistant enterococci
survive for so long.
A National Audit Office report released last week found
that hospital acquired infections kill at least 5,000
people in the UK each year.
Most hospital infections are thought to be spread through
sloppy hygiene, such as failure by doctors and nurses to
wash their hands or to clean instruments properly.
But New Scientist magazine reports that fabrics may be
at least partly to blame for the problem.
The Ohio team, from the Shriners Hospital for Children
in Cincinnati, studied how bacteria could survive on five
common hospital materials:
- Pure cotton from clothing
- Cotton terry from towels
- A cotton-polyester typically used for lab coats
- Pure polyester used in privacy curtains
- Polyethylene from splash aprons
The researchers took 22 strains of bacteria and smeared
them onto samples of the fabrics.
The strains included common "superbugs" resistant
to almost all antibiotics, such as methicillin-resistant
Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and vancomycin-resistant enterococci.
They found that the staphylococci could survive for up
to seven weeks on polyester, and for up to three months
on polyethylene.
Survived longer
Enterococci generally survived even longer than the staphylococcal
strains.
The researchers say bacteria could spread when staff and
patients handle polyester privacy curtains.
"Staphylococci and enterococci survived for days
to months on this fabric, suggesting such drapes could
act as reservoirs for these bacteria."
Experts stress, however, that poor hand hygiene and failure
to wash instruments properly probably dwarf any transmission
via fabrics.
Peter Hoffman, of the Public Health Laboratory Service
in London, said that cotton is the most common fabric in
British hospitals, and items are regularly heat-disinfected
before use.
Where polyethylene is used - in splash aprons, for example
- it is disposed of after treating a patient, like gloves.
He said: "It's accepted that the most important routes
are dirty hands and instruments."
Robert Weinstein of Rush Medical College in Chicago said
the new study was interesting.
He said: "It's not surprising that vancomycin-resistant
enterococci survive for so long.
"They are the cockroaches of the microbial world."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/653490.stm
