Half of doctors' neckties contained dangerous bacteria, new study

Main Category: MRSA / Drug Resistance
Article Date: 25 May 2004 - 0:00 PDT

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Doctors may be harbouring disease-causing bugs in their ties that could potentially be transmitted to patients, a new study has found.

Nearly half the neckties worn by 42 doctors at the New York Hospital Medical Center of Queen's (NYHMCQ) contained bacteria which can cause dangerous conditions like pneumonia and blood infections, the researchers found.

"This study brings into question whether wearing a necktie is in the best interest of our patients," says NYHMCQ's Steven Nurkin, who led the team.

"Being well-dressed adds to an aura of professionalism and has been correlated with higher patient confidence," he says. "But while there is no direct evidence to implicate neckties in the transmission of infection to patients, the link between contaminated necktie and the potential for transmission must be considered."

However, infection control expert Ed Mangini, also part of the NYHMCQ team, thinks ties are unlikely to be a major culprit in the spread of infection in hospitals.

"The contribution that ties make to the transmission of infection is minor compared with that of hands," he told New Scientist. "If we could just get people to consistently wash their hands between patients we would cut down on transmission of infection dramatically."

Notorious superbug

The team decided to probe the bacterial content of physicians' ties after a student doing a surgical rotation at the hospital noticed that doctors' ties occasionally brushed against patients during an examination.

Nearly half - 20 out of 42 - ties sampled from male doctors, physician assistants and medical students walking the wards on three different days contained a reservoir of pathogens.

This compared with just one in 10 of the ties taken from security personnel who acted as the control group. The odds of a clinician wearing a contaminated tie were eight times greater than that of security personnel.

The team scraped samples off the ties and cultured them. One in three harboured Staphlococcus aureus. Resistant forms of this bacterium include the notorious hospital superbug MRSA. Other potentially serious bugs found included Klebsiella pneumoniae and Pseudomonas aeruginosa.

To continue reading this article go to The New Scientist

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