Should we Recommend Stethoscope Disinfection Before Daily Usage as an Infection Control Rule?

Abstract

Abstract:Background: Many studies have shown that contaminated medical equipments act like a vector for crossinfection. Infection control programmes are effective in decreasing hospital-acquired infection rate, however, the implementation of such programmes is hindered by poor compliance of health care workers.Methods: Random selection of health care workers, at our institution, was given questionnaires and were asked to give their stethoscopes to be sampled.Results: 151 health care workers were involved in this study. Physicians were 79/151 and their stethoscopes were found to be the most contaminated (68.3%). The total number of contaminated stethoscopes was 72/151 (47.7%). Coagulasenegative staphylococcus was isolated from 66 diaphragms from 72 (92%).Conclusion: Nosocomial infections carry a higher level of morbidity and mortality. This study showed that there is lack of good compliance with routinely disinfecting the health care workers stethoscopes. We recommend that the significance of disinfecting diaphragms of stethoscopes should be clarified to the health care workers.

Bacterial contamination and antimicrobial susceptibility patterns of intensive care units medical equipment and inanimate surfaces at Ayder Comprehensive Specialized Hospital, Mekelle, Northern Ethiopia

“…This finding is in line with the studies conducted from Ethiopia [17] and Asia [15,22]. On the other hand, our finding is higher than another study from Ethiopia [19], sub-Saharan Africa [5,16,22,23], Asia [13,14,24,25,26], Brazil [27], Italy [28] and UK [12]. On the contrary, this finding is lower than the other study from Brazil [29].…”

Fighting the Battle With-Double Edged Weapons – A Prospective Study

“…The results of our study revealed that the rate of the bacterial contamination of the diaphragm was 76.47%, which is comparable to the observations of previous studies, which found that 71% to 100% of the stethoscopes were colonized by various bacteria [23,24]. The colony counts of the stethoscopes which were used by the post graduate students and interns were comparatively higher than those of the stethoscopes which were used by the consultants and staffs.…”

“…[ 3,18 Nosocomial infections occur at a rate of 5-10 per 100 hospital admissions each year [19]. Contaminated medical equipments and health care staff have been implicated as the carriers of pathogenic organisms [21][22][23][24]. Besides interfering with the conduction of sound waves, clothes can also be an important source of a variety of microorganisms.…”

Compliance with hygiene procedures among medical faculty students

“…Najmniej mikroorganizmów kolonizuje stetoskopy dezynfekowane co najmniej raz w tygodniu, w związku z czym zalecana jest ich regularna dezynfekcja. Zauważono, że regularna dezynfekcja stetoskopu zmniejsza stopień kolonizacji membrany (9,10).…”