Hand washing soap as a source of neonatal <i>Serratia marcescens</i> outbreak

Rabier, V.; Bataillon, S.; Jolivet‐Gougeon, Anne; Chapplain, Jean-Marc; Beuchée, Alain; Bétrémieux, P.

doi:10.1111/j.1651-2227.2008.00953.x

Cited by 42 publications

(27 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…The soap dispenser which was infected with Serratia was removed from the ICU and this probably helped in limiting the spread of the infection. A similar spread of the infection through soap dispensers, which was caused by Serratia marcescens in hospitalized patients as a result of inadequate hand hygiene, has been reported by others also [10,11]. Moreover, the adherence of strict hand hygiene compliance with the use of alcohol based rubs by the health care workers also helped in the containment of the infection.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 66%

Serratia Marcescens - A Rare Opportunis - tic Nosocomial Pathogen and Measures to Limit its Spread in Hospitalized Patients

Khanna¹

2013

JCDR

122

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 66%

Serratia Marcescens - A Rare Opportunis - tic Nosocomial Pathogen and Measures to Limit its Spread in Hospitalized Patients

Khanna¹

2013

JCDR

122

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“…These results suggest that the two organisms may interact with human skin in qualitatively different ways. Both organisms have been reported to contaminate soaps and lead to infections in health care settings (5,18,20,22). Even a brief contact (10 s) with contaminated soap resulted in detectable levels of bacteria on hands (Table 2).…”

Section: Vol 77 2011 Hand Contamination and Bulk-soap-refillable DImentioning

confidence: 99%

Bacterial Hand Contamination and Transfer after Use of Contaminated Bulk-Soap-Refillable Dispensers

Zapka

Campbell

Maxwell

et al. 2011

Appl Environ Microbiol

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Bulk-soap-refillable dispensers are prone to extrinsic bacterial contamination, and recent studies demonstrated that approximately one in four dispensers in public restrooms are contaminated. The purpose of this study was to quantify bacterial hand contamination and transfer after use of contaminated soap under controlled laboratory and in-use conditions in a community setting. Under laboratory conditions using liquid soap experimentally contaminated with 7.51 log 10 CFU/ml of Serratia marcescens, an average of 5.28 log 10 CFU remained on each hand after washing, and 2.23 log 10 CFU was transferred to an agar surface. In an elementary-school-based field study, Gram-negative bacteria on the hands of students and staff increased by 1.42 log 10 CFU per hand (26-fold) after washing with soap from contaminated bulk-soap-refillable dispensers. In contrast, washing with soap from dispensers with sealed refills significantly reduced bacteria on hands by 0.30 log 10 CFU per hand (2-fold). Additionally, the mean number of Gram-negative bacteria transferred to surfaces after washing with soap from dispensers with sealed-soap refills (0.06 log 10 CFU) was significantly lower than the mean number after washing with contaminated bulk-soap-refillable dispensers (0.74 log 10 CFU; P < 0.01). Finally, significantly higher levels of Gram-negative bacteria were recovered from students (2.82 log 10 CFU per hand) than were recovered from staff (2.22 log 10 CFU per hand) after washing with contaminated bulk soap (P < 0.01). These results demonstrate that washing with contaminated soap from bulk-soaprefillable dispensers can increase the number of opportunistic pathogens on the hands and may play a role in the transmission of bacteria in public settings.

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“…From these pediatric nosocomial infection studies, many environmental sources or point sources have been found as reservoirs for S. marcescens, including hands of health care workers and exposure to health care workers (14,156,198,249,267,362,393,396,423), contaminated breast milk, formula, and breast pumps (133,156,204,274,393), contaminated parenteral nutrition (18), an infected neonate as the index patient or colonization of hospitalized infants (28,63,100,148,238,269,270,275,338,362,400), equipment such as incubators (28,198), laryngoscopes (95,204), suction tubes, soap dispensers (52), and waste jars (393), air conditioning ducts (387), contaminated hand brushes (7), contaminated disinfectants and soap (14,52,76,258,313,396), cotton wool pads (137), multidose nebulizer dropper bottles (215), and multidose medications (133).…”

Section: S Marcescensmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As in outbreaks that have occurred in adults, genotyping methods have been used in many pediatric outbreaks to type the involved S. marcescens strains, including sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) analysis of disrupted S. marcescens cells (116), plasmid profiling (18,41,157,258), PFGE (52,190,228,239,269,270,309,313,338,341,366,396), ribotyping (150), rep-PCR (239, 393), RAPD-PCR (18), and PCR fingerprinting (366). Voelz and others performed a systematic analysis of several pediatric S. marcescens outbreak studies from 1984 to 2010 that utilized typing procedures to determine clonality.…”

Section: S Marcescensmentioning

confidence: 99%

Serratia Infections: from Military Experiments to Current Practice

2011

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SUMMARY Serratia species, in particular Serratia marcescens , are significant human pathogens. S. marcescens has a long and interesting taxonomic, medical experimentation, military experimentation, and human clinical infection history. The organisms in this genus, particularly S. marcescens , were long thought to be nonpathogenic. Because S. marcescens was thought to be a nonpathogen and is usually red pigmented, the U.S. military conducted experiments that attempted to ascertain the spread of this organism released over large areas. In the process, members of both the public and the military were exposed to S. marcescens , and this was uncovered by the press in the 1970s, leading to U.S. congressional hearings. S. marcescens was found to be a certain human pathogen by the mid-1960s. S. marcescens and S. liquefaciens have been isolated as causative agents of numerous outbreaks and opportunistic infections, and the association of these organisms with point sources such as medical devices and various solutions given to hospitalized patients is striking. Serratia species appear to be common environmental organisms, and this helps to explain the large number of nosocomial infections due to these bacteria. Since many nosocomial infections are caused by multiply antibiotic-resistant strains of S. marcescens , this increases the danger to hospitalized patients, and hospital personnel should be vigilant in preventing nosocomial outbreaks due to this organism. S. marcescens , and probably other species in the genus, carries several antibiotic resistance determinants and is also capable of acquiring resistance genes. S. marcescens and S. liquefaciens are usually identified well in the clinical laboratory, but the other species are rare enough that laboratory technologists may not recognize them. 16S rRNA gene sequencing may enable better identification of some of the less common Serratia species.

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Hand washing soap as a source of neonatal Serratia marcescens outbreak

Cited by 42 publications

References 21 publications

Serratia Marcescens - A Rare Opportunis - tic Nosocomial Pathogen and Measures to Limit its Spread in Hospitalized Patients

Serratia Marcescens - A Rare Opportunis - tic Nosocomial Pathogen and Measures to Limit its Spread in Hospitalized Patients

Bacterial Hand Contamination and Transfer after Use of Contaminated Bulk-Soap-Refillable Dispensers

Serratia Infections: from Military Experiments to Current Practice

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