We’ve posted recently about studies looking at what microbes are present on the scrubs worn by medical professionals and the fact that those are often worn outside the hospital.
Not surprisingly many parts of hospitals themselves harbor a range of microbes, some of which are potentially problematic. A recent study looked at what kinds of microbes were present on privacy curtains, as well as how quickly the curtains were recolonized after being changed. As always, knowing what types of microbes are present doesn’t neccessairly tell you that they’re dangerous. However, in this case they did find significant amounts of methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) and vancomycin-resistant Enterococci (VRE) which is at the very least not an encouraging sign.
The authors also demonstrated that the curtains are recolonized quickly, and by a variety of different microbes which is potentially a problem given the difficulty of keeping these kinds of objects sterile.
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