Abstract

OLIVA-MENACHO, José Enrique; GARCIA-HJARLES, Marco Antonio; OLIVA-CANDELA, José Arturo  and  DE LA CRUZ-ROCA, Hugo Saturnino. Contamination of medical stethoscopes with pathogenic bacteria in a level III hospital in Lima, Peru. Rev Med Hered [online]. 2016, vol.27, n.2, pp.83-88. ISSN 1018-130X.  http://dx.doi.org/10.20453/rmh.v27i2.2842.

Objectives: To determine the degree of contamination with pathogenic bacteria by stethoscopes used for medical personnel in a general hospital in Lima, Peru. Methods: Cross sectional study carried-out at Hospital Nacional Arzobispo Loaya between January and June 2013. A total of 124 samples were evaluated from the following areas: 20 from the ICU, 13 from the neonatology service, 3 from the burn unit; 52 from medicine wards, and 36 from the emergency room. The samples were collected using a moist cotton swab in sterile conditions (using a alcohol bunser burner) and introduced in tubes containing brain-heart infusion to be incubated at 37C for 24 hours. The determination of pathogenic bacteria used MacConkey and manitol agar with specific biochemical methods. The Kirby-Bauer method was used to determine the antibiotic susceptibility pattern. Results: 114 out of 124 stethoscopes were contaminated (91.9%); 123 strains were isolated: cogaulase negative Staphylococcus spp, 106(86.1%), Staphylococcus aureus 5(4.0%), Enterobacter aerogenes 4 (3.2%), Acinetobacter spp 2(1.6%), Pseudomonas aeruginosa 4(3.2%), Klebsiella Pneumoniae 1(0.8%) and Escherichia coli 1(0.8%). Conclusions: Isolation of pathogenic bacteria from medical stethoscopes suggests that this device is a vector of nosocomial infections.

Keywords : Stethoscopes; fomites; noxae; microbiology; Peru.

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