A novel comprehensive efficacy test for textiles intended for use in the healthcare setting.

Soft surfaces, including textiles are found throughout healthcare settings. Pathogens can survive for long periods of time on textiles, and can be transferred to and from the skin. Antimicrobial fabrics are used as an engineering control to prevent infection. Efficacy testing standards have limitations, including single microorganism challenges, multiple fabric plies tested, and lengthy contact times. We developed a novel method that better models in-use conditions through testing standardized mixtures of pathogens and normal skin microorganisms, artificial soils, and a 15-min contact time. Reproducible growth of all microorganisms from frozen stocks was achieved using this method. A novel rechargeable, monitorable N-halamine cotton cellulose fabric, containing 5885 ± 98 ppm of active chlorine, was evaluated with the new method using PBS, artificial sweat, and artificial sweat plus 5% serum as soil. Pathogens tested included Acinetobacter baumannii, Candida albicans, Escherichia coli, vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecalis, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, methicillin-susceptible Staphylococcus aureus, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Each was tested singly and in the presence of a representative normal skin flora mixture, including: Acinetobacter lwoffii, Corynebacterium striatum, Micrococcus luteus, and Staphylococcus epidermidis. When tested singly, all microorganisms were reduced by 3.00 log10 or greater, regardless of artificial soil. In mixture, 4.00 log10 or greater reductions were achieved for all microorganisms. These results suggest that the novel testing method can be used to provide more comprehensive and realistic efficacy information for antimicrobial textiles intended for use in healthcare. Furthermore, the N-halamine fabric demonstrated efficacy against multiple pathogens, singly and in mixtures, regardless of the presence of artificial soils.

Laundering habits of student nurses and correlation with the presence of Staphylococcus aureus on nursing scrub tops pre- and postlaundering.

Little is known about student nurse laundering practices. Student nurses swabbed their scrub tops after clinical and after laundering, and they completed a laundry survey; 13.5% of students wore the same scrub more than once, and few followed recommended guidelines by using hot water (20%) or bleach (5.6%) when laundering scrubs. After clinical shifts, 17% of swabs tested positive for Staphylococcus aureus; however, laundering eradicated it from 64.3% of positive samples. This was not statistically significant.

Screening for bipolar disorder during pregnancy.

Bipolar disorder is a high-risk condition during pregnancy. In women receiving prenatal care, this study addresses the proportion screening positive for bipolar disorder with or without also screening positive for depression. This is a pilot study using chart abstraction of Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) and Mood Disorder Questionnaire (MDQ) scores from patients' initial prenatal visits. Among 342 participants, 289 (87.1 %) completed the EPDS, 277 (81.0 %) completed the MDQ, and 274 (80.1 %) completed both. Among EPDS screens, 49 (16.4 %) were positive. Among MDQ screens, 14 (5.1 %) were positive. Nine (21.4 %) of the 42 participants with a positive EPDS also had a positive MDQ. Of the 14 patients with a positive MDQ, five (35.7 %) had a negative EPDS. The prevalence of positive screens for bipolar disorder in an obstetric population is similar to gestational diabetes and hypertension, which are screened for routinely. Without screening for bipolar disorder, there is a high risk of misclassifying bipolar depression as unipolar depression. If only women with current depressive symptoms are screened for bipolar disorder, approximately one third of bipolar disorder cases would be missed. If replicated, these findings support simultaneous screening for both depression and bipolar disorder during pregnancy.