Contaminação por fungos antes e após limpeza e desinfecção de colchões hospitalares

Worldwide survey of Corynebacterium striatum increasingly associated with human invasive infections, nosocomial outbreak, and antimicrobial multidrug-resistance, 1976-2020

Corynebacterium striatum is part of microbiota of skin and nasal mucosa of humans and has been increasingly reported as the etiologic agent of community-acquired and nosocomial diseases. Antimicrobial multidrug-resistant (MDR) C. striatum strains have been increasingly related to various nosocomial diseases and/or outbreaks worldwide, including fatal invasive infections in immunosuppressed and immunocompetent patients. Although cases of infections by C. striatum still neglected in some countries, the improvement of microbiological techniques and studies led to the increase of survival of patients with C. striatum nosocomial infections at different levels of magnitude. Biofilm formation on abiotic surfaces contributes for the persistence of virulent C. striatum and dissemination of antimicrobial resistance in hospital environment. Besides that, empirical antibiotic therapy can select multi-resistant strains and transfer intra and interspecies genes horizontally. In this study, a worldwide survey of C. striatum human infections and nosocomial outbreaks was accomplished by the analysis of clinical–epidemiological and microbiological features of reported cases from varied countries, during a 44-year period (1976–2020).

Evaluation of disinfectants for elimination of fungal contamination of patient beds in a reference hospital in Piauí, Brazil

This quantitative and qualitative study aimed to identify fungi isolated from patient beds at a reference hospital in Teresina, Piauí, Brazil, and evaluate the efficacy of 70 % ethanol and 1 % hypochlorite for removing the contamination. Thirty-eight beds were chosen at random and the collection was carried out in three situations: before and after disinfection with 70 % alcohol or hypochlorite 1 %. Each sample was inoculated onto Sabouraud dextrose agar containing chloramphenicol and incubated at room temperature to allow fungal growth. We identified 13 species belonging to the genera Aspergillus, Cladosporium, Alternaria, Rhizopus, Penicillium, and Candida. All of these species are pathogenic and can worsen the clinical condition of patients. The 1 % hypochlorite solution proved to be an efficient disinfectant against the fungi, but the same was not observed using 70 % ethanol. Based on these findings, we recommended that the use of 1 % hypochlorite during bed disinfection be added to the hospital biosafety protocol to reduce cross contamination and contribute to patient recovery.