Hospital sink banks are a complete horror of germs

Beware of draining the hospital sink. A new study this week showed that these banks can be a common source of drug -resistant pathogens, even after deep cleaning.

Researchers at the Balearic Islands University in Spain led the study, Published Friday in Borders in microbiology. They analyzed the bacteria collected from banks around one hospital that is well -maintained and revealed a rich variety of annoying microbes, including high errors that can resist many antibiotics simultaneously. The researchers say the results indicate that the spread of these bacteria within hospitals is more difficult than expected.

Antibiotics resistance is one of the most urgent public health issues of our time. that it The ability is already This infection kills at least 1.27 million people worldwide annually, including 35,000 Americans annually. And her studies expected These drug -resistant bacteria will eventually coincide or even exceed the current annual death of cancer (about 10 million deaths annually) in the next few decades.

Hospitals and other healthcare facilities are a common reproduction causes to resist antibiotics for several reasons. Antimicrobials are widely used in these places, and resist directly. Patients are also in a healthy state of usual than usual, which facilitates infections of infections and spread, such as the wildfire among people. Looking at these known risks, hospitals and their staff routinely take steps to relieve antibiotic resistance, which often include deep cleaning of areas where bacteria can remain, such as plumbing systems and passing on.

The researchers wanted to test the effectiveness of these preventive measures. They analyzed the sink banks from one university hospital on Marca Island, which was built in 2001. According to researchers, the hospital routinely cleanses its ponds and banks with bleaching, and cleanses them with vapor and compressed chemicals every two weeks, and treats tubes with chlorine once a year.

From February 2022 to February 2023, they were collected (using cotton swabs) and genetically sequence bacterial samples from six sink banks in five wings: two of the intensive care unit units, one for each of the blood diseases, short stays, and general medicine; And the laboratory of microbiology.

They all told that they have identified 67 different species of banks. While there are some differences between the wings, all banks contained a wide range of bacteria, including the latest intensive care unit that entered into force in the previous year. The researchers also dismissed the breeds of bacteria usually associated with the serious infection acquired in the hospital, including Pseudomonas aeruginosaand Klebsiella pneumoniaAnd Cluster Aureus. Although there is slope and flows in the types of bacteria in these banks throughout the year, the cleaning procedures used by the hospital do not seem to have a significant impact on their general diversity.

“Here we make it clear that the hosts of the host hospitals are changing over time, despite the flawless cleaning protocols in the appointed hospital that we looked at,” prominent researcher Margareta Gomilla, a professor at the Balearic Islands University, said in a statement from the border. , Study publishers. “The bacteria that we have found from many sources, patients, medical employees, and even the environment surrounding the hospital, may arise. Once created in sink banks, they can spread abroad, which poses great risks to patients with immunodeficiency above all.”

The researchers also found that most samples contain at least some bacteria that were resistant to multiple antibiotics, including strains of P. aeruginosa and your. Pneumonia. In a few bacteria, they also identified a disturbing gene that promotes the resistance of carsabinim, a newer category of antibiotics often used as another treatment for infections that stopped responding to other drugs.

It is clear that researchers do not say that hospitals should stop cleaning pelvic banks. But given the prosperity of these bacteria even in the face of deep cleaning, it is clear that more effort should be made to stop or at least slow down the spread of supernatural circles within these risky environments.

“Cleaning protocols are important and must be applied frequently, especially in the wings that are preserved specifically separate The source of these bacteria and their transmission methods.