Hidden Poker Opponents: Germs, Colds and Staph

Researchers studied five different Vegas Strip
casino chips and found 5,600 micro-organisms
including MRSA

Poker players risk more than money at the felt: they risk their health, as players who go to card rooms regularly are prone to catching germs along with their pot winnings. Dr. Will Sawyer from Cincinnati warns about the common germ sharing at the poker table. “Let’s say you’re sick, you cough into your hands, you pick up the cards and you shuffle and deal. Chances are, [germs] from your cough are now on those cards. And if someone picks up a card and they have an itch and they put their finger in their eyes, nose or mouth, they’re probably going to be sick the next day.”

Students at the University of Wisconsin conducted a study in which they placed men suffering from severe colds with a group of healthy men, making them play together for 12 hours. Twelve of the 18 healthy men became sick from the same cold simply by breathing the same air as the sick players and by touching their own faces, cards and chips throughout the game.

Dr. Sawyer, not surprised by the study findings, explains that “Respiratory illness spreads through direct contact and by floating through the air, but the [germs] only float three feet. So, the biggest problem here is really our hands.”

Sawyer has been committed to educating communities about the importance of hand washing as the best method to avoid food poisoning, colds, influenza and respiratory diseases. He claims if people washed hands at the right time and in the right way, they would rarely get sick again.

However, Americans are not so interested in keeping disease-free, according to the Soap and Detergent Association (SDA), a nonprofit institution devoted to educating Americans about proper hygiene. They point out that 68% of the American population doesn’t wash their hands long enough to remove germs, and 36% rarely washes after coughing or sneezing.

The Bluff Towers also made their own study about casino poker chips’ hygiene, for which they hired a team of students and Professor Brian Hedlund from the University of Nevada-Las Vegas to determine how many germs could be found in the chips of five different Vegas Strip casinos. The team found that the chips with the lowest number of bacteria had approximately 5,600 micro-organisms. Of these, staphylococcus – abundant in human skin – was the most common bacterium found in the casino samples. Staphylococcus-induced illness ranges from pimples and boils to the infamous hospital killer MRSA (Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus Aureus), which causes infections immune to most antibiotics, killing around 80,000 people a year. The research team also found high numbers of bacillus, which originate in dirt and dust, and the bacillus cereus found is the main instigator of food poisoning.

For card-room lovers, all they have to do to keep healthy is to keep an instant hand sanitizer next to them, such as gels or wipes, and use it before touching their faces while playing, especially when noticing a sick player in their table. It is also important to take frequent bathroom breaks and wash hands properly, and make sure to always clean your hands before each meal.

Hand Gels
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recommends sanitizing products that are alcohol-based, with a concentration that ranges between 60% and 95%. According to the FDA, hand sanitizers are effective in reducing gastrointestinal diseases, colds and influenza only if they have a high level of alcohol concentration, since many products with lower concentrations do not reduce bacteria effectively and can still allow the transference of germs.

Disinfecting Wipes
The Welsh School of Pharmacy at Cardiff University in Wales conducted a study in which wipes were used in surfaces purposely contaminated with MRSA, which were wiped out in just 10 seconds.

In the U.S., companies that manufacture disinfecting wipes must register them with the Environmental Protection Agency to claim their efficiency to eliminate specific germs.

According to Dr. Bill Rutala from the University of North Carolina Health-Care System, disinfecting wipes are also safe for computer keyboards, for players who like practicing their strategy online after their card-room session. By washing your hands and wiping your keyboards after coming from a casino, you make sure there is no bacterial transference from the casino environment to your home.

Hidden Poker Opponents by EDUARDO SOLANO | Posted: 08/15/2008

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Posted in: Dr. Bill Rutala,Dr. Will Sawyer,GERMS,MRSA,poker table,Professor Brian Hedlund

Hospital garb harbors nasty bacteria | 60 percent of uniforms tested positive

They might look quite clean, but the white coats, pastel uniforms and colorful surgical scrubs worn by doctors and nurses actually may harbor a host of nasty, potentially dangerous bacteria, a new study finds.  

More than 60 percent of health workers’ uniforms sampled by researchers tested positive for pathogens, including the germs that can cause pneumonia, bloodstream infections and drug-resistant infections such as MRSA.

That’s according to a study of hospital attire published today in the American Journal of Infection Control. Israeli researchers collected samples from the sleeves, waists and pockets of 75 registered nurses and 60 doctors at a busy university-based hospital to confirm the germs.

Half of the samples tested positive for one or more pathogens; potentially dangerous bacteria were isolated from at least one site on 63 percent of the uniforms. Of those, 11 percent of the bugs were resistant to multiple front-line antibiotics.

“These data suggest that personnel attire may be one route by which pathogenic bacteria are transmitted to patients,” concluded the researchers, led by Dr. Yonit Wiener-Well of the Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem.

To be sure, the study doesn’t verify a link between the germy garb and actual patient infections, the authors say. But it does raise enough questions to reignite conversations about the ick factor of hospital uniforms and scrubs — especially when health workers wear them in public: out to grocery stores, say, or to sandwich shops.

Workers shouldn't wear scrubs home 
AORN is among several groups and hospital systems that seek to limit potential infection by suggesting rules for hospital workers' attire. AORN guidelines say that hospitals should provide laundry services for surgical doctors and nurses to ensure proper cleaning and that health workers should be barred from wearing scrubs outside of their hospitals.
“Since we know these pathogens are present on attire, our job is to reduce exposure to as low a level as we can,” Conner said.
At the University of Rochester Medical Center in Rochester, N.Y., hospital policy calls for staff to don only scrubs laundered at a hospital-owned facility and to refrain from wearing them outside the premises, said Ann Marie Pettis, director of infection prevention.

“I do cringe,” said Ramona Conner, a registered nurse and manager of standards and recommended practices for the Association of periOperative Registered Nurses. “We do know that antibiotic-resistant organisms have been found to survive for extended lengths of time on hospital materials including clothing and linens.”

"The compliance with the policy, however, is less than perfect, unfortunately," Pettis admitted in an e-mail.

Previous studies in Britain and the United States have suggested that hospital worker attire — including neckties, long-sleeved shirts or coats, and watches, rings and other jewelry — could harbor bacteria that might be passed on to patients.  

But other infection experts say that there are some contamination sources that are far more worrisome than clothing or accessories.

“Uniforms could be a source of contamination, but there is more concern about other surfaces around the patients,” said Russell N. Olmsted, president of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology.

“What we don’t want to do is direct a lot of energy to sterile attire,” he added.

In the new study, the bacterial burden detected on the sleeves, waists and pockets of the uniforms was apparent, but also fairly low, serving mostly as a warning of possible worse contamination nearby, Olmsted said. For instance, there were 89 isolates of Acinetobacter, a potentially nasty bug, with between one and 36 potential colonies, the study found.

“There are surfaces around the person that have a higher bacterial load. There could be 100 colony-forming units to 1,000 units on a bedrail, for instance,” said Olmsted, an epidemiologist in infection prevention and control services at St. Joseph Mercy Health System in Ann Arbor, Mich.

Experts said the germs detected on the uniforms likely reflected poor hand-washing practices, an intractable problem at most hospitals, where between one-third and one-half of health workers fail to follow good hand hygiene, studies have shown.

The Israeli researchers found, not surprisingly, that contamination increased the longer health workers wore their garb. The rate of contamination with multi-resistant organisms was 29 percent on attire changed every two days, compared with 8 percent in uniforms changed daily, the study found.

They recommended that health workers change into clean uniforms daily, boost their hand hygiene practices and use plastic aprons for messy jobs that may involve splashing or contact with bodily fluids.

That’s good advice, agreed Olmsted and Conner, who both said that decreasing the opportunities for bacteria to hitch a ride on hands, clothing or other objects is the key to infection control.

“Our first response to everything is to err on the side of caution,” Conner said.

By JoNel AlecciaHealth writer | msnbc.com Reprints
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Antimicrobial Cards, a simple solution to controlling bacteria on your credit cards and ID badges! Information about how germs and microbes remain on the surface or your cards or employee badges.

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Posted in: BADGES,DOCTOR,GERMS,HAI,HEALTHCARE,infection control,MRSA,NURSING,SCRUBS,UNIFORMS

Germs Coat Hospital Badges, Says Study

Helen Carter, ABC Science Online

http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2007/03/19/idgerms_hea.html?category=health

Identification Badges and Badge Holders

March 19, 2007 — Healthcare workers' lanyards and name badges can harbor pathogens including antibiotic resistant 'superbugs', an Australian hospital study has shown for the first time.

Melbourne researchers showed the popular bootlace-like necklaces that clip to identification cards carry more disease-causing bacteria than standard clip-on badges, and are more likely to be contaminated with antibiotic resistant microbes.

The researchers say hospital pathogens could be transmitted from the hands or clothes of healthcare workers. And infection experts suggest cleaning lanyards and badges in light of these preliminary findings.

The researchers, from Monash Medical Center’s infection control unit, will present their findings at the Australasian Society for Infectious Diseases annual scientific meeting in Hobart.

They collected samples from the surface of lanyards plus the surface, edge and connections of badges worn by 53 nurses and 18 doctors. They isolated 18 pathogens from badges and 27 from lanyards.

The material that lanyards are made from probably made it easier for the researchers to isolate pathogens. But more research is needed to confirm this, they said. Levels of bacteria or bacterial load, were also higher on lanyards.


Of the microbes isolated overall, seven were the 'superbug' methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA); 29 were methicillin sensitive S. aureus (MSSA); four were enterococci and five were aerobic gram-negative bacilli.

"These are common organisms that can cause a range of community and hospital infections," investigators said. "This is a preliminary study and the potential of these organisms to cause disease is unknown from our data.

"But hand washing is very important and we could surmise that cleaning these items would also be important."

Australasian Society for Infectious Diseases president and conference co-convener Professor Lindsay Grayson said pathogens might have come from staff clothing or linen.

"It's very unlikely these [lanyards and badges] would transmit bugs to people. Theoretically there is the potential for transmission but in practical terms these bug numbers are relatively low," he said.

"But it's interesting and reinforces that, just as you wouldn't wear a shirt for weeks without washing it, lanyards and badges should be washed or changed as they can harbor some contamination."

Grayson said MRSA is of most concern as it is resistant to some antibiotics and can cause serious infections.  MSSA, which is more common, is found on everyone's skin but could lead to infections, for example after a cut.  Previous studies have shown similar contamination on doctors' ties, stethoscopes and mobile phones.

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Posted in: BADGES,DOCTOR,HEALTHCARE,id badges,Identification,infection control,MRSA,MSSA,Name,NURSE