Healthcare Laundry and Textiles in the United States: Review and Commentary on Contemporary Infection Prevention Issues.

Healthcare professionals have questions about the infection prevention effectiveness of contemporary laundry processes for healthcare textiles (HCTs). Current industrial laundry processes achieve microbial reductions via physical, chemical, and thermal actions, all of which result in producing hygienically clean HCTs. European researchers have demonstrated that oxidative laundry additives have sufficient potency to meet US Environmental Protection Agency benchmarks for sanitizers and disinfectants. Outbreaks of infectious diseases associated with laundered HCTs are extremely rare; only 12 such outbreaks have been reported worldwide in the past 43 years. Root cause analyses have identified inadvertent exposure of clean HCTs to environmental contamination (including but not limited to exposure to dust in storage areas) or a process failure during laundering. To date, patient-to-patient transmission of infection has not been associated with hygienically clean HCTs laundered in accordance with industry process standards. Occupationally acquired infection involved mishandling of soiled HCTs and failure to use personal protective equipment properly. Laboratory studies of antimicrobial treatments for HCTs demonstrate a wide range of activity from 1 to 7 log10 reduction of pathogens under various experimental conditions. Clinical studies are needed to evaluate potential use of these treatments for infection prevention. Microbiological testing of clean HCTs for certification purposes is now available in the United States. Key features (eg, microbial sampling strategy, numbers of textiles sampled) and justification of the testing are discussed.

Infection Prevention and Control in the Podiatric Medical Setting. Challenges to Providing Consistently Safe Care.

Unsafe practices are an underestimated contributor to the disease burden of bloodborne viruses. Outbreaks associated with failures in basic infection prevention have been identified in nonhospital settings with increased frequency in the United States during the past 15 years, representing an alarming trend and indicating that the challenge of providing consistently safe care is not always met. As has been the case with most medical specialties, public health investigations by state and local health departments, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, have identified some instances of unsafe practices that have placed podiatric medical patients at risk for viral, bacterial, and fungal infections. All health-care providers, including podiatric physicians, must make infection prevention a priority in any setting in which care is delivered.

Infection Prevention and Control in the Podiatric Medical Setting: Challenges to Providing Consistently Safe Care.

Unsafe practices are an underestimated contributor to the disease burden of bloodborne viruses. Outbreaks associated with failures in basic infection prevention have been identified in nonhospital settings with increased frequency in the United States during the past 15 years, representing an alarming trend and indicating that the challenge of providing consistently safe care is not always met. As has been the case with most medical specialties, there have been public health investigations by state and local health departments, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have identified some instances of unsafe practices that have placed podiatric medical patients at risk for viral, bacterial, and fungal infections. All health-care providers, including podiatric physicians, must make infection prevention a priority in any setting in which care is delivered.

Management of neurosurgical instruments and patients exposed to Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.

OBJECTIVE: To summarize the approaches used to manage exposure of patients to inadequately sterilized neurosurgical instruments contaminated as a result of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD). METHODS: Information on past CJD exposure incidents reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) was aggregated and summarized. In addition, inactivation studies were reviewed, and data from selected publications were provided for reference. RESULTS: Nineteen incidents of patient exposure to potentially CJD-contaminated instruments were reported to the CDC, including 17 that involved intracranial procedures and 2 that involved ophthalmologic procedures. In more than 50% of incidents, the neurosurgical procedures were performed for diagnostic work up of the index patients. At least 12 of the hospitals had multiple neurosurgical sets, and the CJD-contaminated instruments could not be identified in 11 of 19 hospitals. In 12 of 15 hospitals with neurosurgical incidents, a decision was made to notify patients of their potential exposure. CONCLUSIONS: Neurosurgical instruments used for treatment of patients with suspected or diagnosed CJD or patients whose diagnosis is unclear should be promptly identified and sterilized using recommended CJD decontamination protocols. Inability to trace instruments complicates appropriate management of exposure incidents. The feasibility of instituting instrument tracking procedures should be considered.