Bacteria Spread From Feces to Bedrails

A new study has found that the presence of the Staphylococcus aureus in patients' stools increases the likelihood that it will make its way onto skin, hospital bed rails, and other surfaces.

Researchers from the Cleveland Veterans Affairs (VA) Medical Center (OH, USA) collected stool samples from 71 inpatients and analyzed these for S. aureus. The researchers also took samples from the patients' nostrils, armpits, and groins, as well as surrounding surfaces such as bed rails and bedside tables using a moist cotton swab. To determine whether these bacteria would be transferred to the researchers' hands, they touched each of the skin and environmental sites with one hand previously disinfected with an alcohol hand rub. Handprints in agar jelly before and after testing were used to determine the presence of bacterial transfer.

The results showed that cultures from environmental surfaces yielded an average of 12.7 colonies (range 1-80), while cultures from armpits and groins yielded colonies of bacteria too numerous to count. Hand cultures after contact with environmental and skin surfaces yielded an average of 15.3 colonies (range 1-80). Almost 77% of the patients colonized with S. aureus had the Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) strain. The study also found that patients harboring S. aureus in both their intestines and noses were significantly more likely than those with the bacterium in their nostrils alone to have positive skin cultures. The new study was published on September 11, 2007, in the online open access journal, BioMedCentral (BMC) Infectious Diseases.

"Because staphylococci on skin may contaminate devices or wounds and be acquired on hands, our data provide support for the hypothesis that colonization of the intestinal tract may facilitate S. aureus infections and nosocomial transmission,” said lead author Curtis Donskey, M.D.


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Cleveland VA Medical Center