Study underscores challenges of removing bacteria from high-touch surfaces

Hospitals need to identify novel approaches for decreasing high-touch surface contamination, including new chemical disinfectants, no-touch devices and self-disinfecting surfaces such as copper, a study concluded. Published last week in the American Journal of Infection Control, the researchers found several high-touch surfaces at the Central Texas Veterans Health Care System in Temple, including bed rails and nurse’s station keyboards, contained multiple colonies of bacteria despite the hospital following routine disinfection strategies. Researchers classified seven of the 60 different types of pathogens isolated as having the potential to cause hospital-acquired infections. The researchers sampled 400 surfaces, both before and after disinfection, from a single medical unit from June to July 2022. (University of Minnesota news release, 1/12/24)