It’s no secret that hospitals can be germ factories, but the extent of it has just been explored in a new Canadian study that found hospital elevators, of all places, harbor the most bacteria that can lead to infections.
In a study published in Open Medicine, researchers at the University of Toronto found that elevator buttons often have the highest level of bacteria – more so than toilets – but that the bacteria was not “clinically relevant” most of the time.
A total of 120 elevator buttons and 96 toilet surfaces were swabbed over multiple intervals at three tertiary hospitals in Toronto, the study said
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“Hospital-acquired infections are a substantial cause of morbidity and mortality,” the report states, noting that the “prevalence of nosocomial infection among hospital inpatients is estimated to be as high as 10 percent.”
“Furthermore, even brief exposure to a hospital emergency department can increase the risk of such an infection. A variety of inanimate objects, including white coats, computer keyboards, cellular telephones, stethoscopes, adhesive tape, ultrasound transducers, and radiographic equipment, harbour bacteria,” the study says.The report underscores a growing target among several startups and biotech companies that are seeking to reduce or eliminate HAIs, a persistent issue that all hospitals would like to contain to maintain the best possible outcomes.
Such companies include Aerobiotix, which is building devices that use UV light to attack moving pathogens, bacteria and spores prevalent in hospital air. Then there’s Malvern, Pa.-based VenatoRx Pharmaceuticals, which was formed by the former executive team at Protez, a company that developed antibiotics to combat HAIs and other infections.
And LifeAire Systems, which makes an in-duct air purification system designed to improve air quality in critical areas for hospitals, last year raised $2 million
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Yet the elevator buttons theory is new, the study suggested, and perhaps offers a more complete picture on HAIs and how to combat them.
“Previous studies have most commonly identified colonization by skin bacteria,” the report says. “Surface contamination has also been implicated in the propagation of drug-resistant bacteria. Moreover, bacteria can persist on inanimate objects for days.”
Authors of the study therefore hypothesized that hospital elevator buttons “may be an additional under-recognized site of microbial contamination.”
“At a single university in a community setting, for example, about one-third of elevator buttons were colonized by bacteria,” the authors note.
They found that there was a 61 percent prevalence of colonization of bacteria on elevator buttons, irrespective of where said buttons were located. The prevalence did not vary based on day of the week or within the elevators. By comparison, toilets only had a 43 percent prevalence of bacteria colonization.
[Image of the elevator buttons from flickr user Chris Campbell]
