Until now, I have never really given much thought to what
may or may not transpire when doing laundry.
Certainly, I KNOW if you want to keep your whites white, you DO NOT want
that errant piece of red clothing to be part of the white load. Just as my mother had taught me, I separate
laundry to have a linens load, a whites load, a colours load etc. She DID NOT, however, teach me to have a
separate underwear load. If you keep
reading you'll see where I'm going.....
Last week's blog Cotton - it absorbs more than just water
focused on how cotton cloths absorb Quats and therefore impact
disinfection. It gets worse, SO MUCH
worse. Gerba et al recently published a study in AJIC titled "Microbial contamination of hospital reusable cleaning towels". The focus was not on what was found on the
cloth AFTER using, but what was found on the cloth AFTER laundering and
therefore assumed CLEAN!!! Ten (10)
hospitals participated in the study - 8 of which used cotton cloths, 2 of which
used microfiber cloths. Of the 10
facilities, 9 used a Quat as their daily disinfectant. After last week's blog we know that's a
potential infection prevention and control nightmare. After sampling the "CLEAN" cloths Gerba
and his team found that 93% of the cleaning cloths contained viable
microorganisms EVEN AFTER LAUNDERING!
The microorganisms that were found on the offending
cloths included bacteria that play a significant role in HAIs such as
Klebsiella spp, Pseudomonas spp and Serratia spp. The gross factor (at least to me) was the
fact they found coliform bacteria on the cloths...for those who do not know,
coliform bacteria are universally present in large numbers in the feces of
warm-blooded animals (and humans). Basically there was POOP on the cloths!
The researchers did find that there was a significant
difference in the contamination level found after laundering the cotton and
microfiber cloths with microfibers showing the highest level of bacterial
adhesion. Previously published data has
supported the fact that bacteria adhere more strongly to microfiber cloths
which can have the impact of spreading pathogens to different surfaces as the
microfiber cloths are continually used.
In the end, Gerba and his colleagues found that typical laundering
practices are not sufficient to remove viable pathogens from cleaning
cloths. What they could not determine
was if the contamination was due to a breakdown in the laundering process or if
the cloths get contaminated from storage and handling (I am going to hope it's
the latter). The end result is that the Infection Preventionists and
Environmental Services staff need to consider that cleaning cloths could be a
potential reservoir for nosocomial pathogens.
I will admit, I have always questioned the laundering
process at hotels and so I NEVER let the bed covers touch my face. I think perhaps now, with the knowledge that
coliforms can be found on cleaning cloths after laundering I am going to have
to rethink how I sort my laundry.
Effective immediately, underwear are GOING TO BE LAUNDERED ON THEIR
OWN....need I say more?
Bugging Off!
Nicole
