Hospital bath basins are frequently contaminated with multidrug-resistant human pathogens

Dror Marchaim; Alexis R Taylor; Kayoko Hayakawa; Suchitha Bheemreddy; Bharath Sunkara; Judy Moshos; Teena Chopra; Odaliz Abreu-Lanfranco; Emily T Martin; Jason M Pogue; Paul R Lephart; Sanjeet Panda; Sorabh Dhar; Keith S Kaye

doi:10.1016/j.ajic.2011.07.014

Hospital bath basins are frequently contaminated with multidrug-resistant human pathogens

Am J Infect Control. 2012 Aug;40(6):562-4. doi: 10.1016/j.ajic.2011.07.014. Epub 2011 Dec 16.

Authors

Dror Marchaim¹, Alexis R Taylor, Kayoko Hayakawa, Suchitha Bheemreddy, Bharath Sunkara, Judy Moshos, Teena Chopra, Odaliz Abreu-Lanfranco, Emily T Martin, Jason M Pogue, Paul R Lephart, Sanjeet Panda, Sorabh Dhar, Keith S Kaye

Affiliation

¹ Division of Infectious Diseases, Detroit Medical Center, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI 48201, USA. drormc@hotmail.com

PMID: 22177667
DOI: 10.1016/j.ajic.2011.07.014

Abstract

The hospital environment is increasingly recognized as a reservoir for hospital-acquired pathogens. During a 44-month study period, a total of 1,103 basins from 88 hospitals in the United States and Canada were sampled. Overall, 62.2% of the basins (at least 1 basin at each hospital) were contaminated with commonly encountered hospital-acquired pathogens.

Publication types

Multicenter Study
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Bacteria / drug effects*
Bacteria / isolation & purification*
Baths*
Canada
Drug Resistance, Multiple, Bacterial*
Environmental Microbiology*
Hospitals
Humans
United States