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Microbial Contamination of Medical Staff Clothing During Patient Care Activities: Performance of Decontamination of Domestic Versus Industrial Laundering Procedures

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Abstract

The efficacy of domestic laundering of healthcare staff clothing is still debated. This study aimed to compare the performance of decontamination of different domestic laundering with that of industrial laundering. Fourteen naturally contaminated white coats of healthcare workers (5 fabric squares from each coat) and fabric squares of artificially contaminated cotton cloth (30 fabric squares per each bacterial strain used) were included. Four domestic laundering procedures were performed; two different washing temperatures (40 °C and 90 °C) and drying (tumble dry and air dry) were used. All fabric squares were ironed. Presence of bacterial bioburden on the fabric squares after domestic and industrial laundering was investigated. None of the naturally contaminated fabric squares resulted completely decontaminated after any of the domestic washes. At 24, 48, and 72 h of incubation, bacterial growth was observed in all the laundered fabric squares. Besides environmental microorganisms, potentially pathogenic bacteria (i.e., Acinetobacter lwoffii, Micrococcus luteus, coagulase-negative staphylococci) were isolated. On the artificially contaminated fabric squares, the bioburden was reduced after the domestic laundries; nevertheless, both Gram-negative and -positive pathogenic bacteria were not completely removed. In addition, a contamination of the fabric squares by environmental Gram-negative bacteria was observed. In both the naturally and artificially contaminated fabric squares, no bacterial growth at all the time-points analyzed was observed after industrial laundering, which provided to be more effective in bacterial decontamination than domestic washes. For those areas requiring the highest level of decontamination, the use of specialized industrial laundry services should be preferred.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Dr. Alessandro Senni and Dr. Mauro Ravaglia (Linea Sterile S.p.A., Gatteo, Italy) for performing the industrial laundering procedure. The authors would also like to thank their Linguistic Consultant, Lucy Scioscia, for editing the English language text.

Funding

No funding was received.

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Author notes

  1. Angela Chiereghin and Silvia Felici have contributed equally.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Specialized, Experimental, and Diagnostic Medicine, Operative Unit of Clinical Microbiology, St. Orsola Polyclinic, University of Bologna, Via Giuseppe Massarenti 9, 40138, Bologna, Italy

    Angela Chiereghin, Silvia Felici, Claudio Foschi, Gabriele Turello, Giulia Piccirilli, Liliana Gabrielli & Tiziana Lazzarotto

  2. Department of Biomedical and Neuromotor Sciences, Unit of Hygiene and Biostatistics, University of Bologna, Via San Giacomo 12, 40126, Bologna, Italy

    Dino Gibertoni

  3. Microbiology Unit, Hospital of Legnano, ASST Ovest Milanese, Via Papa Giovanni Paolo II, 20025, Legnano, MI, Italy

    Pierangelo Clerici

  4. Rizzoli Scientific Orthopedic Institute, Via Giulio Cesare Pupilli 1, 40136, Bologna, Italy

    Maria Paola Landini

Authors
  1. Angela Chiereghin
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  2. Silvia Felici
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  3. Dino Gibertoni
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  4. Claudio Foschi
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  5. Gabriele Turello
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  6. Giulia Piccirilli
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  7. Liliana Gabrielli
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  9. Maria Paola Landini
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  10. Tiziana Lazzarotto
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Tiziana Lazzarotto.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Informed Consent

The study did not require the approval by the institutional review board as no human subjects were involved in the research project, and all healthcare workers' white coats included in the study were rendered anonymous.

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Chiereghin, A., Felici, S., Gibertoni, D. et al. Microbial Contamination of Medical Staff Clothing During Patient Care Activities: Performance of Decontamination of Domestic Versus Industrial Laundering Procedures. Curr Microbiol 77, 1159–1166 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00284-020-01919-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00284-020-01919-2

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