DANGEROUS FUNGI LIVE FOR WEEKS ON HOSPITAL ITEMS

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Date: Fri Sep 28, 2001 2:10 am

Subject: DANGEROUS FUNGI LIVE FOR WEEKS ON HOSPITAL ITEMS

Thursday September 27 5:20 PM ET

DANGEROUS FUNGI LIVE FOR WEEKS ON HOSPITAL ITEMS

By Karla Gale

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Materials commonly used in hospitals for

privacy curtains and apparel can serve as reservoirs for fungi that

cause infection, according to researchers at the Shriners Hospitals

for Children in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Drs. Alice N. Neely and M. Orloff tested survival of 23

different

fungal strains, primarily isolated from burn patients, on cotton,

polyester and cotton-polyester blend fabrics, polyethylene,

polyurethane and the spandex-nylon blend used in pressure garments.

Multiple swatches of the test materials were treated with at least

10,000 colony-forming units of the fungal preparations. The survival

of the fungi was tested daily.

Half of the Aspergillus and Mucor fungus samples lived for longer

than

26 days, while half of samples of Candida, Fusarium and Paecilomyces

lived beyond 5 days, the researchers report in the Journal of

Clinical

Microbiology for September.

Survival tended to be longer on materials that were 100% synthetic,

with a median of 19.5 days, than on fabrics containing cotton, for

which median survival was 5 days.

" I don't know that there's any kind of antimicrobial activity in

cotton, " Neely told Reuters Health. She said the enhanced survival

in

synthetics ``may be a physical phenomenon related to dryness. "

Four species of Aspergillus were tested, including one sample from

the

hospital environment and two taken from patients for each species.

For

each of the four species tested, the longest-lived sample was taken

from a patient.

" A lot of fungi are becoming resistant to antimicrobials, so we

wanted

to find out ways of preventing infections rather than having to

treat

them once they've occurred, " Neely explained.

" We noticed in watching people that when they go to do something

with

the patients, generally not only do their hands touch the patients,

but usually their sleeves and cuffs will touch the patients also, "

she

said.

As a result, and in order to prevent transfer of infection-causing

microorganisms from one patient to another, those who work with

patients are no longer permitted to wear long sleeves at Neely's

institution. Hospital workers are also required to wash their

forearms

in addition to their hands when they have finished with each patient.

SOURCE: Journal of Clinical Microbiology 2001;39:3360-3361.