ABSTRACT
Adenovirus infections within the hematopoietic stem cell transplantation setting can lead to high rates of mortality and hospital-acquired cases have been associated with environmental reservoirs. To establish both location and levels of environmental adenovirus contamination, 48 cubicles containing 794 surfaces were screened postterminal clean over a 4-year period. After initial cleaning 23% of these sites had detectable adenovirus. These data were then used to develop and implement a cleaning standard algorithm for terminal cleaning that was implemented to ensure cubicles were adenovirus-free before the next patient admission.
Subject(s)
Adenovirus Infections, Human/prevention & control , Adenoviruses, Human/isolation & purification , Algorithms , Cross Infection/prevention & control , Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation/adverse effects , Adenovirus Infections, Human/virology , Adenoviruses, Human/genetics , Cross Infection/virology , Environmental Microbiology , Environmental Monitoring , Health Facilities , Hospital Units , Housekeeping, Hospital , Humans , Intensive Care Units, Pediatric , Models, StatisticalABSTRACT
Handwashing is one of the most important means of reducing the spread of infection. In this study, we investigated how sink location and visibility influences handwashing and microbial contamination detected on clinical sinks in 3 pediatric intensive care units. We conclude that the visibility of sinks directly impacts on handwashing frequency and duration and also impacts on levels of bacterial contamination on and around the sink area.
