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Doc, nurse hospital garb harbors bacteria

JERUSALEM, Aug. 31 (UPI) -- Hospital nurses' and doctors' uniforms are likely to be contaminated with potentially dangerous bacteria, Israeli researchers' test results suggest.

Dr. Yonit Wiener-Well of the Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem collected swab samples from three parts of the uniforms -- abdominal zone, sleeves' ends and pockets -- of 75 registered nurses and 60 medical doctors.

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The researchers at this 550-bed, university-affiliated hospital found 65 percent of the registered nurses' uniforms and 60 percent of the uniforms of the doctors, harbored pathogens.

The study, published in the September issue of the American Journal of Infection Control, found that of the uniforms testing positive for pathogens, 21 cultures from the nurses' uniforms and six cultures from doctors' uniforms contained multi-drug resistant pathogens, including eight cultures that grew methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus.

Although the uniforms themselves may not pose a direct risk of disease transmission, these results indicate a prevalence of antibiotic resistant strains in close proximity to hospitalized patients, Wiener-Well says.

"It is important to put these study results into perspective," Russell Olmsted, president of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology Inc., says in a statement.

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"Any clothing that is worn by humans will become contaminated with microorganisms. The cornerstone of infection prevention remains the use of hand hygiene to prevent the movement of microbes from these surfaces to patients."

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