Bacterial contamination of children's toys used in a general practitioner's surgery.

General practitioners--and other healthcare professionals are encouraged to make their premises child friendly. One way of doing this is to provide toys for children to use. We looked at the appearance and bacterial colonisation of 50 toys after a busy morning surgery in an inner city general practice. The toys appeared generally unclean and 10% were contaminated by potential pathogens. Bacteria were cultured more frequently from soft toys than from hard toys (odds ratio 8.14; 95% confidence range 0.74-107.49). Although toys may appear to be physically dirty after use, the bacteria isolated from their surfaces are generally non-pathogenic to children with normal immune function and probably no worse than other objects in the environment. However, there does exist an appreciable (1 in 10) risk of cross-infection with the use of toys in a clinic. Toys with a hard surface are preferred as these are less likely to be contaminated and are more easily disinfected.