New research from the University of Virginia in Charlottesville charts bacteria's path from the healthcare facility sink to the patient, according to an article on the Becker's Infection Control & Clinical Quality website.
"Our study demonstrates that bacterial spread from drainpipes to patients occurs via a staged mode of transmission," Amy Mathers, MD, the study's lead investigator and an associate professor of medicine and pathology, said in the article.
Bacteria colonize in drainpipe elbows and can grow up the pipes at a rate of about an inch a day. That means bacteria can reach the sink bowl in about a week.
They are eventually splashed in and around the sink.
On the Lookout: The Software Supply Chain as a Healthcare Cyberattack Vector
Hackensack Meridian Health & Wellness Center at Clifton Opens
Suffolk Breaks Ground on Expansion of White Plains Hospital
EVS Leadership Culture Critical in Preventing Hospital-Acquired Sepsis
Man Dies by Suicide in Emergency Department Waiting Room at Kansas Hospital