Evaluation of fungal contamination in operating rooms using a dusting cloth pad: comparison among different sampling methods

A Review on Initiatives for Promoting Better Menstrual Hygiene Practices and Management in India

Management of hygiene during menstruation is severely affected by the continued existence of several societal, cultural, and religious restrictions on menstruation and menstruation practices. Since they are frequently unprepared and unaware of their periods, especially in rural regions of the country, girls face a variety of hurdles and problems at home, in school, and at work. We observed from examining the studies that managing menstrual hygiene is affected by a lack of personal sanitation and inadequate, erroneous, or partial understanding of menstruation. Women either possess zero or minimal knowledge about genital infections, which are caused by poor personal hygiene during menstruation. Women in rural areas frequently lack access to sanitary items and have inadequate understanding of their sorts and applications, or cannot afford the high cost of such products. Females in rural areas must use washable cotton pads because of this, which they must use repeatedly. The requirements and desires of teenage girls and women continue to be disregarded, despite substantial developments in the water and sanitation industries. Menstrual products are disposed of in domestic garbage and public facilities when women are outside, while they are flushed down toilets at home without considering the risk of choking. Because of this, there should be a need to inform and educate individuals about the health risks and environmental problems connected to them. Reduced trash may be achieved by using modern techniques like incineration. Therefore, the importance of using natural or reusable sanitary products should be emphasized.

Current and potential approaches on assessing airflow and particle dispersion in healthcare facilities: a systematic review

An indoor environment in a hospital building requires a high indoor air quality (IAQ) to overcome patients' risks of getting wound infections without interrupting the recovery process. However, several problems arose in obtaining a satisfactory IAQ, such as poor ventilation design strategies, insufficient air exchange, improper medical equipment placement and high door opening frequency. This paper presents an overview of various methods used for assessing the IAQ in hospital facilities, especially in an operating room, isolation room, anteroom, postoperative room, inpatient room and dentistry room. This review shows that both experimental and numerical methods demonstrated their advantages in the IAQ assessment. It was revealed that both airflow and particle tracking models could result in different particle dispersion predictions. The model selection should depend on the compatibility of the simulated result with the experimental measurement data. The primary and secondary forces affecting the characteristics of particle dispersion were also discussed in detail. The main contributing forces to the trajectory characteristics of a particle could be attributed to the gravitational force and drag force regardless of particle size. Meanwhile, the additional forces could be considered when there involves temperature gradient, intense light source, submicron particle, etc. The particle size concerned in a healthcare facility should be less than 20 μm as this particle size range showed a closer relationship with the virus load and a higher tendency to remain airborne. Also, further research opportunities that reflect a more realistic approach and improvement in the current assessment approach were proposed.

Use of RODAC plates to measure containment of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in a Class IIB biosafety cabinet during routine operations

OBJECTIVE/BACKGROUND

Guidelines for the manipulation of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) cultures require a Biosafety Level 3 (BSL-3) infrastructure and accompanying code of conduct. In this study, we aimed to validate and apply detection methods for viable mycobacteria from surfaces in a BSL-3 MTB laboratory.

METHODS

We evaluated phenotypic (Replicate Organism Detection and Counting [RODAC] plates) and molecular (propidium monoazide [PMA]-based polymerase chain reaction [PCR]) approaches for the detection of viable mycobacteria, as well as the effect of 70% ethanol applied for 5min for disinfection against mycobacteria. For validation of the method, recovery of serial dilutions of Mycobacterium bovis bacillus Calmette-Guérin from glass slides was measured. Subsequently, we stamped surfaces in and around the biosafety cabinet (BSC) after different technicians had manipulated high bacterial load suspensions for routine drug-susceptibility testing in a Class II BSC.

RESULTS

RODAC stamping could detect as few as three bacteria on slides stamped either 5min or 60min after inoculation. PMA-based PCR, tested in parallel, did not pass validation. Mycobacteria were still detected after 5-min disinfection with ethanol 70%. In the BSL-3, from 201 RODAC-stamped surfaces, MTB was detected in four: three inside a BSC-on a tube cap and on an operator's gloves-and one outside, on an operator's gown.

CONCLUSION

RODAC plates detect mycobacteria at low numbers of microorganisms. In addition, this method allowed us to show that 70% ethanol does not reliably kill mycobacteria when applied for 5min to a dried surface, and that MTB bacilli may arrive outside a Class II BSC during routine practice, although the route could not be documented.