Privacy Curtains Proven Source Of MRSA Contamination

Main Category: MRSA / Drug Resistance
Also Included In: Infectious Diseases / Bacteria / Viruses
Article Date: 22 Feb 2006 - 4:00 PDT

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A study from The Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, UK, has highlighted a hitherto overlooked source of the killer super-bug MRSA. It has long been thought that environmental hygiene was the key to curbing the spread of the organism and infection-control staff across the country have been charged with ensuring that wards are kept clean, staff are meticulous over hand washing and wherever possible incidents of airborne infection are minimised.

Until recently however one vital piece of the jigsaw has been missing, but at long last there is hard medical evidence to show that the privacy curtains surrounding patients' bed are an important but overlooked source of outbreaks. The Department of Microbiology at Birmingham's Queen Elizabeth hospital in collaboration with local partners has produced a report that conclusively proves a link between dirty curtains and MRSA. The results of this controlled study show that 'The curtains surrounding the patients beds were the predominant source with comparatively high counts of organisms found'.

The news comes as no surprise to the manufacturers of the world's first disposable and fully recyclable curtains, Birmingham based Marshall Contracts. For many years they have supplied the NHS with conventional fabric curtains but Chief Executive Laurence Marshall says, 'I realised long ago that curtains aren't usually changed very often and strongly believed they were responsible. Our new disposable curtain can be changed up to a hundred times quicker than a conventional curtain, has a coating that actually kills MRSA and has been proven to be more cost effective than using conventional curtains. When calculating costs hospitals often overlook the astronomical price of treating somebody who has acquired the infection and needs expensive drugs and extra time in hospital, they also appear to forget about the human misery and loss of life.

I'm pleased that my hunch has been confirmed by the report, but despite take-up by over two hundred forward thinking hospitals, we are still a long way from being able to promise a fresh set of curtains for every new patient.' Marshall's ambition, now the evidence is in the public domain, is to convince hospital infection control teams that 'a fresh set of curtains for every new patient' is both realistic and achievable, with the result that another major element of the fight against MRSA is firmly in place.

For further information contact Laurence Marshall direct on (UK) +44 (0)7800 685771 or on (UK) +44 (0)121 783 5777 email info@marshallcontracts.co.uk

Source of evidence: - Carbapenem-reistant Acinetobacter and role of curtains in intensive care units - Journal of Hospital Infection
P Lambert - Department of Pharmaceutical & Biological Sciences at Aston University.
J Bion - Department of Anaesthetics & Intensive Care
I Das, D Hill, M Noy & T Elliott - Department of Microbiology.
Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham UK

http://www.marshallcontracts.co.uk

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