Literature DB >> 27555701

Hospital curtains: An undermined source of nosocomial infections.

Usman Ghani1, Salman Assad1, Touqeer Sulehria1, Immad Arif1.   

Abstract

Entities:  

Year:  2016        PMID: 27555701      PMCID: PMC4968069          DOI: 10.4103/0972-5229.186263

Source DB:  PubMed          Journal:  Indian J Crit Care Med        ISSN: 0972-5229


× No keyword cloud information.
Sir, Contact hygiene is often a neglected subject in most hospital settings, particularly with regards to contact with the patient environment in a hospital setting. The purpose of this letter is to emphasize the role of patient bedside curtains in the transmission of microbial pathogens. Various disease-associated bacteria are transferred from person to person via hospital equipment including bedside curtains, which are categorized as “high touch” surfaces by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.[1] Various outbreaks of hospital-acquired pathogens and their transmission have been reported in clinics, inpatient wards, and Intensive Care Units (ICUs). Bedside, curtains are frequently directly touched by patient's hands, as well as the nursing staff and the visitors. This, in particular, makes all health-care workers, patients, and visitors vulnerable of transmitting disease-causing pathogens among each other. Numerous human pathogens have been identified in hospital and clinic curtains. These include Micrococcus species (sp.), Bacillus sp., Escherichia coli, coagulase-negative Staphylococcus, and Staphylococcus aureus. Some of these bacteria may still persist even after laundry of curtains and become potential causes of infectious diseases, particularly in hospitalized patients with attenuated immune systems. In a survey where curtains were cleaned every 4 months reported, 42% vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE), 22% methicillin resistant S. aureus (MRSA), and 4% Clostridium difficile using contact plates and swabbing technique. Most contamination was found in privacy curtains of isolation rooms. Ninety-two percent of the privacy curtains in the hospital wards and ICUs to be contaminated with bacteria as determined by culture swabs.[2] Most of the hospital curtains were harboring MRSA and VRE, posing a potential pathogenic threat to the patient and their house staff. Despite proper laundry, patient side curtains were reported to be contaminated within a week after they were replaced. If this trend of pathogenic transmission continues, there is a potential danger that newer, drug-resistant bacteria may evolve, providing a challenge to health-care providers to limit the spread of nosocomial infections. There was an epidemic of Acinetobacter baumannii in ICU settings of a tertiary care hospital in Birmingham (United Kingdom) in 2002, where bedside curtains were identified as the primary source of carbapenemase-producing Acinetobacter species, which were resistant to meropenem.[3] Similarly, in a recent outbreak of Group A Streptococcus (GAS) infection in ENT ward in Nottingham (UK), 10 out of 34 bedside curtains identified as reservoirs of GAS.[4] These data highlight the importance of recognizing hospital curtains as a potential reservoir of microbial pathogens. It is imperative for health-care facilities to set an appropriate frequency of changing bedside curtains and promote contact hygiene to minimize a risk of bacteria transmission. This should be based on patient discharge and the institutional prevalence of microbial pathogens such as MRSA. It is crucial to adapt decontamination protocols to ensure effective elimination of microbes from hospital curtains. Besides contact hygiene before and after a patient interaction, one intervention suggested to spray 3% hydrogen peroxide to reduce curtain contamination. This technique is able to decontaminate bedside curtains after 2 h.[5] It is understandable that several factors contribute to the hurdles in achieving high disinfect rates; sustained efforts should be implemented to identify and control the spread of infectious agents that are transferred by contacting hospital curtains.

Financial support and sponsorship

Nil.

Conflicts of interest

There are no conflicts of interest.
  5 in total

1.  Contamination of hospital curtains with healthcare-associated pathogens.

Authors:  Floyd Trillis; Elizabeth C Eckstein; Rachel Budavich; Michael J Pultz; Curtis J Donskey
Journal:  Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol       Date:  2008-11       Impact factor: 3.254

2.  Carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter and role of curtains in an outbreak in intensive care units.

Authors:  I Das; P Lambert; D Hill; M Noy; J Bion; T Elliott
Journal:  J Hosp Infect       Date:  2002-02       Impact factor: 3.926

3.  The 1999 Lindberg award. 3% hydrogen peroxide for the gram-positive disinfection of fabrics.

Authors:  A N Neely; M P Maley
Journal:  J Burn Care Rehabil       Date:  1999 Nov-Dec

4.  Outbreak of invasive group A streptococcus infection: contaminated patient curtains and cross-infection on an ear, nose and throat ward.

Authors:  N Mahida; A Beal; D Trigg; N Vaughan; T Boswell
Journal:  J Hosp Infect       Date:  2014-05-10       Impact factor: 3.926

5.  Guidelines for environmental infection control in health-care facilities. Recommendations of CDC and the Healthcare Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee (HICPAC).

Authors:  Lynne Sehulster; Raymond Y W Chinn
Journal:  MMWR Recomm Rep       Date:  2003-06-06
  5 in total

北京卡尤迪生物科技股份有限公司 © 2022-2023.