SAN DIEGO-Disposable sheaths on electronic ear thermometers aren’t enough to discourage nosocomial pathogens.
An Easton (Pa.) Hospital team, which did cultures on the bases and probe handles of 24 ear thermometers, found infectious microbes lurking in abundance. The devices had been used in the medical, surgical, oncology, ICU, and dialysis units.
Semi-quantitative cultures of 12 thermometers all yielded coagulase-negative staph, with an average 280 colony-forming units per device. Coagulase-negative staph with an average 66 cfu/plate was identified on 12 devices cultured directly on solid media. Forty percent of the isolates were multidrug-resistant.
Staph aureus, methicillin-resistant staph, and Enterococcus faecalis were present in one isolate each, viridans strep in four, and Micrococcus sp. in three, Dr. Wesley Kozinn told the Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy here.
