Keyboard Contamination in Intensive Care Unit: Is Cleaning Enough? Prospective Research of In Situ Effectiveness of a Tea Tree Oil (KTEO) Film.
Adv Exp Med Biol
; 1323: 91-102, 2021.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-757865
ABSTRACT
After the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, disinfection practices and microbial load reduction have become even more important and rigorous. To determine the contamination of keyboard surface and the relative risk to transfer healthcare-associated pathogens to susceptible patients, as it frequently happens in Intensive Care Unit (ICU), a standard keyboard (SK), a cleanable keyless keyboard (KK) with smooth surface and a standard keyboard coated with a 3 M Tegaderm® film added with active essential oil (tea tree oil) (KTEO) were tested. S. aureus, including MRSA strains, were detected in ICU, with values ranging from 15% to 57%. Gram negative strains belonging to the Enterobacteriaceae family were also found with values ranging from 14% to 71%. Similar Gram positive and Gram negative strains were found on all surfaces, but with low percentage, and only environmental bacteria were detected using the settling plates method. The Microbial Challenge Test performed on KTEO showed high rates of decrease for all the pathogens with statistical significance both at 24 and 48 h (p = 0.003* and p = 0.040*, respectively). Our results suggest that the use of KTEO may be a feasible strategy for reducing the transmission of pathogens in health care setting and may be complementary to surface cleaning protocols.
Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Cross Infection
/
Tea Tree Oil
/
COVID-19
Type of study:
Cohort study
/
Experimental Studies
/
Observational study
/
Prognostic study
/
Randomized controlled trials
Limits:
Humans
Language:
English
Journal:
Adv Exp Med Biol
Year:
2021
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
5584_2020_575
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