Effects of Multiple Cleaning and Disinfection Interventions on Infectious Diseases in Children: A Group Randomized Trial in China / 生物医学与环境科学（英文）

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To assess the effectiveness of multiple cleaning and disinfection interventions in the homes and kindergartens, in reducing gastrointestinal and respiratory illnesses of children.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>From October 2010 to September 2011, we performed a prospective, controlled study in China. 408 children under 5 years old were recruited and group randomized into intervention and control groups. Families and kindergartens in the intervention group were provided with antibacterial products for hand hygiene and surface cleaning or disinfection for one year. Each child's illness symptoms and sick leave were recorded every day.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>A total of 393 children completed the study, with similar baseline demographics in each of the 2 groups. Except for abdominal pain, the odds of symptoms (fever, cough and expectoration, runny nose and nasal congestion, diarrhea), illness (acute respiratory illness and gastrointestinal illness), and sick leave per person each month were significantly reduced by interventions. The rates of fever, diarrhea, acute respiratory illness, gastrointestinal illness and sick leave per person per year were significantly decreased as well.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Not only the acute respiratory and gastrointestinal illness but the sick leave rate in children were significantly reduced by multiple interventions.</p>

Microbial presence on kitchen dishcloths in Chinese households / 生物医学与环境科学（英文）

To study the microbiological contamination of kitchen dishcloths in Chinese housholds, 1010 'in-use' kitchen dishcloths were collected from residential premises in Beijing and Shanghai, and they were sent to the laboratory for microbiological quality analysis. The aerobic plate counts for dishcloths were 10-109 cfu/cm2 in the range of 150 cfu/cm2 to 1.776×109 cfu/cm2 (Beijing) and 62.5 cfu/cm2 to 8.75×108 cfu/cm2 (Shanghai). Nineteen species of bacteria were detected in the dishcloths, most of which were conditional pathogenic bacteria. This study found a significant difference in the aerobic plate counts of dishcloths with regard to type, number of the days used, activities used for, and some family factors. The findings of the study highlight the potential for contamination of kitchen dishcloths within homes.