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BackgroundIn the United States, the most commonly transplanted tissues are bones, tendons, skin, heart valves, vessels and corneas. Over two million tissue grafts are distributed each year.Efforts to advance tissue transplant safety are less defined compared with organ transplant, and continuously being improved and regulated by national agencies. Environmental contamination, postmortem translocation of microorganisms, cross-contamination, and tissue processing are critical components which can be prevented with hand hygiene education thus preventing the transmission of infectious diseases. Microorganisms from technicians’ skin can potentially result in infection and nontransplantable tissue. This is particularly true of regenerative tissue, such as Vivigen, that undergo no sterilization process.MethodsA review was done of all 2018 ViviGen culture with these organisms: Bacillus, Cornebacterium, Diptheroids, Propionibacterium, Staphylococcus Coagulase negative, and Streptococcus viridians defined as Category 1.ResultsIn 2018, 384 out of 1418 ViviGen donors were discarded due to positive cultures. Of the 384, 190 were due the presence of a Cat. 1 microorganism in post-processing cultures, for a discard rate of 17.6%. In these donors, preprocessing cultures were initially negative, thus indicating contamination was due to technician contamination. In the first quarter of 2019, and since implementation of Hand Hygiene education, we have already start to see a decline in acquisition of Cat 1 organism for a total reduction of 6% from Q1 of 2018 compared with 2019.ConclusionTissue banking is a complex process of many steps to assure quality and safety of the tissue. Contamination is critical even when the microorganisms are considered low-virulent skin flora (i.e., Cat 1). This is especially important if these Cat 1 organisms are found in Post-processing cultures of grafts not terminally irradiated or sterilized. Implementation of proper hand hygiene education and aseptic techniques among tissue recovery and processing staff can significantly reduce the bioburden. Furthermore, a reduction in bioburden equates to higher likelihood in honoring the gift of donation in this selfless act of the donor and their loved one while also decreasing the financial loss due to culture results.Disclosures All authors: No reported disclosures.

BackgroundThe Center for Disease Control and Prevention reports that 160 million school days are lost each year due to infectious illnesses. Hand hygiene is one of the most effective ways to prevent illness that can lead to absenteeism among school-aged children, yet few schools have a formal education program as a preventative strategy.MethodsA Pilot Hand Hygiene experiment was initiated for 90 second grade students at a Virginia Beach Public School. The experiment was designed to bring awareness and to satisfy a scientific module requirement. Students cultured their hands on general purpose agar plates with the assistance of physicians and a microbiologist. The proper hand washing technique was demonstrated. Students were equally divided into two groups: hand washing group and sanitizer group. They were instructed to re-culture hands after intervention. Students observed cultures for five days and documented results.ResultsOverall, student observation of decreased microbial growth was an average of 91% (Figure 1). Education improved compliance, which resulted in a favorable behavioral change on average of 89% (Figure 2). There was a 71% decrease in incidence of illness-related absences 30 days after the hand hygiene intervention (Figure 3). In three out of five classes, hand sanitizer was more effective when compared with hand washing. In addition, a random sample of cultures were incubated in a microbiology lab to identify the common microbes among the second-grade elementary school population. It revealed both resident and transient flora. Post-intervention, there was a rise in coagulase-negative Staphylococci resident flora. This indicated a successful decrease in transient flora, which is most likely to cause illness.ConclusionHand Hygiene education is remarkably beneficial, especially in children who are at greater risk of illness. It is clearly effective in decreasing infectious disease risk, while teaching a life-long skill. For the impact as a preventative strategy to be felt, its implementation into elementary school curriculum is warranted.Disclosures All authors: No reported disclosures.