Inpatient and Outpatient Clinics Must Monitor Fomites as Part of IPC Protocols

Not knowing exactly how individuals became infected with COVID-19, early studies suggested the virus could survive on plastic or stainless steel for days, resulting in advice to disinfect everything.2,3 However, even though the COVID-19 virus can survive for days on surfaces, epidemiological data di...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inInfection control today
Main Author Spratt, Henry G
Format Magazine Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Cranbury MultiMedia Healthcare Inc 28.09.2022
Subjects
Bacteria
Bacterial infections
Children & youth
Coronaviruses
COVID-19
Disease control
Disease prevention
Disease transmission
Disinfection & disinfectants
E coli
Epidemiology
Flooring
Infectious diseases
Intensive care
Joint replacement surgery
Medical research
Outpatient care facilities
Pathogens
Patients
Physical therapy
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2
Staphylococcus infections
Therapists
Ultrasonic imaging
United States > US
Tennessee
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Summary:Not knowing exactly how individuals became infected with COVID-19, early studies suggested the virus could survive on plastic or stainless steel for days, resulting in advice to disinfect everything.2,3 However, even though the COVID-19 virus can survive for days on surfaces, epidemiological data did not support contact with contaminated fomites as the greatest risk for spread of infection. For a recent study of a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) in a local children's hospital, swab samples were taken from 20 sites in the unit by researchers from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga's Clinical Infectious Disease Control (CIDC) Research Unit (Table9). Results of this study indicated that of the 20 NICU surfaces swabbed, 12 sites (60%) had viable staphylococci and 4 of those sites (20%) had methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) (Figure).5 However, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines on routine environmental sampling for pathogens in hospitals deemed swab sampling not cost-effective, discouraging its use unless certain criteria (eg, ongoing bacterial infections of unknown etiology) were met.6 As a result, surface contamination of MRSA within this NICU would have gone unnoticed without the work of the CIDC. Spratt HG, Levine D, Sinha A, See D. Surveillance of staphylococci presence in and around neonate Isolette beds in a neonatal intensive care unit of a children's hospital.
ISSN:1522-063X