Open AccessHygiene: microbial strategies to reduce pathogens and drug resistance in clinical settings
Author(s) -
Caselli Elisabetta
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
microbial biotechnology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.287
H-Index - 74
ISSN - 1751-7915
DOI - 10.1111/1751-7915.12755
Subject(s) - hygiene , sanitation , transmission (telecommunications) , drug resistance , medicine , infection control , environmental health , drug , contamination , multi drug resistant , intensive care medicine , biology , microbiology and biotechnology , ecology , pharmacology , electrical engineering , pathology , engineering
Summary Healthcare‐associated infections ( HAI s) are a global concern, affecting all western hospitals, and profoundly impairing the clinical outcome of up to 15% of all hospitalized patients. Persistent microbial contamination of hospital surfaces has been suggested to contribute to HAI s onset, representing a reservoir for hospital pathogens. On the other hand, conventional chemicals‐based sanitation do not prevent recontamination and can select drug‐resistant strains, resulting in over 50% of surfaces persistently contaminated. There is therefore an urgent need for alternative sustainable and effective ways to control pathogens contamination and transmission. Toward this goal, we recently reported that a probiotic‐based sanitation can stably decrease surface pathogens up to 90% more than conventional disinfectants, without selecting resistant species. This paper summarizes some of our most significant results.