Microbial burden on environmental surfaces and transmission of infection in long-term care facilities

The number of people aged 65 and older in the USA is projected to nearly double from 49 million in 2016 (15% of the population) to 81 million in 2040 (22% of the population). There are now over 1.7 million residents in the 16,000 US nursing homes and more people in long-term care facilities (LTCFs) than in acute-care hospitals, highlighting the importance of infection prevention. It is well documented that hospital environmental surfaces play an important role in the transmission of MDROs such as MRSA and VRE. This paper describes a quantitative analysis of the microbial burden and prevalence of epidemiologically important pathogens (EIP) found on LTCF environments. EIP were defined as MRSA, VRE, C. difficile, and MDR-Gram negative rods (eg, Klebsiella).

Rooms of residents with reported colonization had much greater EIP counts than rooms of non-colonized residents. Sixty-five percent of the resident rooms and 50% of the common areas were positive for at least one EIP. MRSA was the most common EIP recovered, followed by C. difficile and MDR-GNR.

The authors conclude that improved cleaning and disinfection of environmental surfaces (ie, noncritical surfaces and medical equipment) is critical to reduce the risk of EIP transmission via environmental surfaces through contact with environmental surfaces and common areas in nursing homes (eg, activity rooms).

Rutala WA, DiBiase LM, Powell AW, Gergen MF, Sickbert-Bennett EE, Kanamori H, Weber DJ. Microbial burden on environmental surfaces in long-term care facilities: a quantitative analysis. Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology.:1-6. doi:10.1017/ice.2024.129