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Showing 211-220 of 343 results

You Can’t Trust Your Eyes to Determine "Clean" (138)

November 3, 2009

What looks clean isn’t necessarily so, according to UK researchers after performing 3,000 tests to determine cleanliness levels in a hospital setting.    Scientists Cooper, Griffith, Malik, Obee and Looker compared areas that looked clean with the actual organic soil (via ATP) and/or microbial load …

Study Says: Improving Our Environment Can Improve Our Behavior (140)

October 27, 2009

The odor in a room is enough to elicit a stronger impulse towards fairness, researchers from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University have claimed. They believe their research proves there is a correlation between hygiene and decency and that by improving our environment …

Mobile Phones Contaminated with Nosocomial Pathogens? (142)

October 23, 2009

Abstract   BackgroundThe objective of this study was to determine the contamination rate of the healthcare workers’ (HCWs’) mobile phones and hands in operating room and ICU. Microorganisms from HCWs’ hands could be transferred to the surfaces of the mobile phones during their use.   …

Opportunistic Pathogens Enriched in Showerhead Biofilms (143)

September 29, 2009

Abstract   The environments we humans encounter daily are sources of exposure to diverse microbial communities, some of potential concern to human health. In this study, we used culture-independent technology to investigate the microbial composition of biofilms inside showerheads as ecological assemblages in the human …

ICAAC: Hospital Surfaces Major Source of C. difficile (144)

September 21, 2009

Healthcare workers are just as likely to pick up Clostridium difficile spores from bed rails and other surfaces around a hospital room as from touching an infected patient’s skin, researchers found. Gloves tested positive for the spore form of the diarrheal bacteria 50% of the …

CDC

Questions & Answers – 2009 H1N1 Influenza Vaccine (146)

September 8, 2009

What are the plans for developing 2009 H1N1 vaccine?Vaccines are the most powerful public health tool for control of influenza, and the U.S. government is working closely with manufacturers to take steps in the process to manufacture a 2009 H1N1 vaccine. Working together with scientists …

Reduction of Clostridium Difficile and Vancomycin-Resistant Enterococcus Contamination of Environmental Surfaces After An Intervention to Improve Cleaning Methods (147)

September 7, 2009

Abstract   BackgroundContaminated environmental surfaces may play an important role in transmission of some healthcare-associated pathogens. In this study, we assessed the adequacy of cleaning practices in rooms of patients with Clostridium difficile-associated diarrhea (CDAD) and vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus (VRE) colonization or infection and examined whether …

Restroom Cleaning: Using Science in the Fight Against Design Flaws (148)

August 21, 2009

A basic guiding principle in understanding restroom cleaning is that almost all public restrooms have used designs and been constructed with methods and materials that embody flaws that work against easy removal of microbial contamination. These flaws include: non-mitered wall and floor intersections, walls that …