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Daily room disinfection reduced spread of C. difficile, MRSA in HCWs
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Daily disinfection of frequently touched surfaces reduced the acquisition of Clostridium difficile and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus among health care workers, according to researchers from the Cleveland Veterans Affairs Medical Center.
“Because healthcare workers do not always follow hand hygiene and glove use recommendations, daily disinfection of surfaces may provide a valuable additional approach to reduce hand contamination and prevent disease transmission,” Curtis Donskey, MD, assistant professor of medicine at Case Western Reserve University, told Infectious Disease News. This approach is analogous to daily chlorhexidine bathing as a form of ‘source control’ to eliminate the source of transmission and infection
In this prospective, randomized trial, standard cleaning was compared with daily disinfection of high-touch surfaces, such as bed rails, bedside table, call button, telephone, chair, door knobs, bathroom hand rail and toilet seat. This was done in C. difficile and MRSA isolation rooms. Rooms that were randomly assigned to daily disinfection were disinfected each morning for 7 days or until patient discharge. Within 6 to 8 hours of disinfection, the researchers used sterile gloves to touch the surfaces, then had the gloves cultured for pathogens.
The study included 70 patients: 34 had C. difficile and 36 had MRSA. Daily disinfection resulted in a significant reduction in the acquisition of both pathogens on the investigators’ hands after contact with the high-touch surfaces. The disinfection process took approximately 20 minutes and was not associated with any patient adverse effects.
“Our findings suggest that daily disinfection of high-touch surfaces in isolation rooms may address an important source of health care worker (HCW) hand contamination and provide a useful adjunctive measure to reduce transmission,” the researchers wrote. “The intervention was simple, inexpensive and well accepted by patients.”
Disclosure: One researcher reports financial relationships with 3M, BioK, Pfizer, Steris and ViroPharma.
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