Korean J healthc assoc Infect Control Prev.  2021 Jun;26(1):39-41. 10.14192/kjicp.2021.26.1.39.

Microbial Contamination Rates of Hospital Privacy Curtains: A Prospective Culture Study

• Lee CM
• Goh HY
• Lee HY
• Oh YR
• Choe PG
• Park WB
• Kim NJ

• KMID: 2516943
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.14192/kjicp.2021.26.1.39

Abstract

Contaminated curtains are a reservoir of microorganisms that can be a source of infection outbreak. In order to investigate the contamination rates of hospital curtains over time, we obtained cultures from 34 hospital privacy curtains and 2 control curtains over 8 weeks. If the cultures revealed over 2.5 colony-forming units (CFU)/cm² of microorganisms, the curtains were considered contaminated. The burden of microorganisms in the control curtains remained under 0.2 CFU/cm² during the study period. The cumulative contamination rate of the hospital privacy curtains increased over time (week 2: 15.6%, week 4: 37.0%, and week 8: 55%). The contamination rates of the curtains from the 2-, 4-, 5-, 6-, and 7-bed rooms were 0% (0/1), 0% (0/4), 20% (1/5), 43.8% (7/16), and 100% (3/3), respectively. Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus was not isolated from either the control or the hospital curtains during the study period. Vancomycin-resistant enterococci was not isolated from the control curtains but was isolated from 11.8% (4/34) of the hospital curtains (week 2: 2, week 4: 1, and week 6: 1). The contamination rate of the hospital curtains increased over time and showed a tendency to rise with an increase in the number of beds in a room.

Keyword

Hospital; Contamination; Environment

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