23
views
0
recommends
+1 Recommend
0 collections
    0
    shares
      • Record: found
      • Abstract: found
      • Article: not found

      Infection control implications of the laundering of ambulance staff uniforms and reusable mops.

      Read this article at

      ScienceOpenPublisherPubMed
      Bookmark
          There is no author summary for this article yet. Authors can add summaries to their articles on ScienceOpen to make them more accessible to a non-specialist audience.

          Abstract

          There is a lack of published studies on laundering in ambulance services. We performed bacterial culture on soiled and unsoiled uniforms and reusable mop heads artificially contaminated with Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, and Clostridium difficile spores. Current laundering processes used for routine cleans in the ambulances appears, from our simulations, to be effective at reducing vegetative pathogenic bacteria to undetectable levels, <3.398log10 colony-forming units (S. aureus and E. coli). Reduced levels of C. difficile were still detected after laundering but the risk this poses for infection is unknown, as background levels of these spores in the environment are unknown.

          Related collections

          Author and article information

          Journal
          J. Hosp. Infect.
          The Journal of hospital infection
          Elsevier BV
          1532-2939
          0195-6701
          May 2017
          : 96
          : 1
          Affiliations
          [1 ] Institute of Healthcare Policy and Practice, School of Health, Nursing and Midwifery, University of the West of Scotland and University Hospital Crosshouse, UK. Electronic address: w.mackay@uws.ac.uk.
          [2 ] Department of Microbiology, Monklands District General Hospital, Airdrie, UK.
          [3 ] Scottish Ambulance Service, Edinburgh, UK.
          [4 ] Institute of Healthcare Policy and Practice, School of Health, Nursing and Midwifery, University of the West of Scotland and University Hospital Crosshouse, UK.
          [5 ] National Services Scotland, Glasgow, UK.
          Article
          S0195-6701(17)30114-7
          10.1016/j.jhin.2017.02.017
          28318779
          2cc1df53-ed1b-4fba-82a4-6c26feb563a4
          History

          Ambulance,Cleaning,Decontamination,Disinfection
          Ambulance, Cleaning, Decontamination, Disinfection

          Comments

          Comment on this article