TIPSHEET
Highlights from the Journals of the
American Society for Microbiology
February 2000
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INDOOR WASTE STORAGE INCREASES AIRBORNE CONTAMINANTS
If you store your trash inside, your house may have a level of airborne bacteria and fungi that could make you sick, say researchers from Wageningen University in the Netherlands and the University of Iowa in the February 2000 issue of the journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology.
In the study, the researchers collected samples of house dust from 99 homes in the Netherlands. Half the households stored organic waste (i.e., remains of fruits, vegetables and other foods) indoors. A comparison of the samples found a significantly higher level of airborne microbial contamination in homes in which separated organic waste was stored indoors.
"Separate collection of organic household waste and nonorganic household waste has become increasingly common in many European countries as part of national or local environmental management policies," say the researchers. "We found that increased microbial contaminant concentrations in the home environment were associated with indoor storage of separated organic waste, which might increase the risk of respiratory disease related to such contaminants."
Interestingly, note the researchers, storage of unseparated trash indoors had little or no effect on microbial contamination.
(I.M. Wouters, J. Douwes, G. Doekes, P.S. Thorne, B. Brunekreef, and D.J.J. Heederik. 2000. Increased levels of markers of microbial exposure in homes with indoor storage of organic household waste. Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 66: 627-631.)
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MICROBES SURVIVE ON HOSPITAL FABRICS
Harmful bacteria can survive for days, sometimes even months, on fabrics commonly used in hospitals, say researchers from Shriners Hospital for Children in Cincinnati and the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine. Their report appears in the February 2000 issue of the Journal of Clinical Microbiology.
In the study, researchers experimentally innoculated fabric samples from a variety of hospital sources with a number of disease-causing bacteria, including several antibiotic-resistant strains, and tested the viability of these bacteria over time. All the bacterial samples survived at least one day and many lasted as long as 3 months. The lowest survival rates were found on natural fabrics including cotton and terry cloth, while the longest survival rates were found in polyesters and other man-made fibers.
"Data in this study indicate that staphylococci and enterococci can survive for extended periods of time on materials commonly worn by patients and health care workers and on various other fabrics in the hospital environment," say the researchers. "The length of survival of these organisms on the various materials may have signficant infection control implications. For example, the polyester tested in this study is the material used at our hospital for privacy drapes, which are handled by both patients and staff when they are drawn around the patient's bed. Staphylococci and enterococci survived for days to months on this fabric, thereby suggesting that such drapes could act as reservoirs for these bacteria."
The long survival of these organisms on the various fabrics highlights the importance of meticulous control measures and thorough disinfection of all hospital fabrics to minimize the spread of hospital-borne infections, including antibiotic-resistant bacteria, say the researchers.
(A.N. Neely and M.P. Maley. 2000. Survival of enterococci and staphylococci on hospital fabrics and plastic. Journal of Clinical Microbiology, 38: 724-726.)
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CHLAMYDIA BACTERIA NOT ASSOCIATED WITH ALZHEIMER'S AFTER ALL
In contrast to a previously published report, the pathogen Chlamydia pneumoniae is not associated with Alzheimer's disease (AD), says researchers from the Medical University of Lubeck, Germany in the February 2000 issue of the Journal of Clinical Microbiology.
In the study, the researchers were attempting to replicate a 1998 North American study that found the organism in 17 of 19 brains of patients with AD. They tested brain tissue samples from 20 Europeans subjects with AD and were unable to detect C. pneumoniae in any of them.
"The report of C. pneumoniae in the brains of AD patients remains an isolated finding and one to be reproduced by others," say the researchers. "From our data the presence of C. pneumoniae in the brains of Alzheimer's patients is not a common phenomenon; an association remains questionable."
(J. Gieffers, E. Reusche, W. Solbach and M. Maass. 2000. Failure to detect Chlamydia pneumoniae in brain sections of Alzehimer's disease patients. Journal of Clinical Microbiology, 38: 881-882.)
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