BACKGROUND Waterless alcohol-based hand sanitizers are an increasingly popular method of hand hygiene and help prevent hospital-acquired infection (HAI). Whether hand sanitizer dispensers (HSDs) may themselves harbor pathogens or act as fomites has not been reported. METHODS All HSDs in the surgical intensive care unit of an urban teaching hospital were cultured at three sites: The dispenser ...

Surface bio-contamination is a problem that contributes to outbreaks of community-acquired and nosocomial infection through episodic fomite transmission of disease and through persistent fomitic reservoirs. The extent to which fomitic reservoirs contribute to the overall extent of nosocomial infection is unknown, but fomites are known to play some role in the transmission of many diseases, incl...

TO THE EDITOR—A global health crisis, the 2014 Ebola outbreak has now struck healthcare workers (HCWs) at unprecedented levels. Whereas historically, Ebola epidemics spread via person-to-person transmission, the current outbreak in West Africa has seen unexpectedly extensive spread of nosocomial disease, despite HCWs' reliance on previously effective infection control procedures such as patient...

COVID-19 pandemic has created chaos in almost every walk of life. The harsh impact the disease is mainly rooted to rapid and easy spread SARS-CoV-2 virus through airborne fomite routes. Thus, disinfection contaminated surfaces air important hamper transmission. Ozone being a potent gaseous disinfectant been utilized inactivate wide-range viruses more recently gained interest inactivation SARS-C...

Microbial and viral pathogen contamination of touch surfaces contributes to the rapid transmission diseases. It has been known for decades that microbes viruses are rapidly inactivated when exposed copper its alloys. Consequently, use thermal spray technologies coat in healthcare public settings receiving a considerable amount interest during recent pandemics particularly now with COVID-19. Thi...

Mass spectrometry (MS) can become a potentially useful instrument type for aerosol, droplet and fomite (ADF) contagion surveillance in pandemic outbreaks, such as the ongoing SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. However, this will require development of detection protocols purposing instrumentation situ environmental surveillance. These approaches include: (1) enhancing biomarker by pattern recognition machine...