Decreased activity of commercially available disinfectants containing quaternary ammonium compounds when exposed to cotton towels.

BACKGROUND: Health care-associated infections (HAIs) are a significant problem in hospitals, and environmental surfaces have been implicated as a source of HAIs in the hospital environment. Furthermore, Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria can persist on dry environmental surfaces for as long as several months. Poorly cleaned surfaces may serve as vehicles for microbes, which may then be transferred to patients. METHODS: Cotton and microfiber towels were both tested for their abilities to bind quaternary ammonium compounds (QACs). The towels were exposed to 3 commercially available disinfectants for 0.5, 30, and 180 minutes. Germicidal spray tests (GSTs) were performed for all towel eluates in accordance with the AOAC International method 961.02. Cotton towel eluates were analyzed for QAC concentration using high-performance liquid chromatography. RESULTS: QAC concentrations were reduced by up to 85.3% after exposure to cotton towels, resulting in failure of the disinfectants exposed to cotton towels in 96% of the GSTs. CONCLUSION: The use of cotton towels with QAC-based cleansers should be reconsidered, particularly in hospitals where effective cleaning of the patient environment is needed to reduce the risk of HAIs.

Microbial contamination of hospital reusable cleaning towels.

BACKGROUND: Hospital cleaning practices are critical to the prevention of nosocomial infection transmission. To this end, cloth towels soaked in disinfectants are commonly used to clean and disinfect hospital surfaces. Cloth cleaning towels have been linked to an outbreak of Bacillus cereus and have been shown to reduce the effectiveness of commonly used quaternary ammonium disinfectants. Thus, it is important to determine whether the reuse of cloth towels increases the risk of pathogen transmission in hospitals. METHODS: The goal of this project was to determine the effects of laundry and cleaning practices commonly used in hospitals for washing, storage, and disinfection of cloth cleaning towels on their microbial loads. RESULTS: Our results indicate that cloth towels used for cleaning hospital rooms contained high numbers of microbial contaminants. CONCLUSIONS: In this case, hospital laundering practices appear insufficient to remove microbial contaminants and may even add contaminants to the towels. Furthermore, it has been previously reported that towels can interfere with the action of common hospital disinfectants. Either independently or in combination, these 2 factors may increase the risk for transmission of pathogens in hospitals. These observations indicate the need to critically reevaluate current hospital cleaning practices associated with reuse of cloth towels.