UV lotion detects dirty hospital toilets

From YenraWiki

Announced May 10, 2008, a team of scientists using a lotion which glows under ultraviolet light have shown that up to a third of patient toilets are not properly cleaned. Findings published in BMC Infectious Diseases show that spores from the bacteria Clostridium difficile linger in the toilet even when it has been thoroughly wiped down.

Hospital patients are thought to catch bugs like vancomycin-resistant Enterococci, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and Clostridium difficile because they are not eradicated from the hospital environment. These bugs may be transferred between patients through cross-contamination in the bathroom.

Toilet inspectors smeared the UV lotion under the seats of twenty toilets and commodes being used by patients with diarrhea at a hospital. Seven of these patients had C. difficile infection, while thirteen others did not. The toilets and commodes were tested every weekday for six months and checked using UV light to determine how well they had been cleaned. In addition, samples were taken from toilet surfaces to determine whether spores were present.

The UV marker revealed that the commodes for the seven patients isolated with C. difficle infections had not been properly cleaned 72% of the time. The toilets fared slightly better, with half of the samples taken showing no residual UV lotion after cleaning. The 13 patients not on isolation had much cleaner toilets, with only 14% glowing brightly under UV light. Further assessments showed that differences in toilet cleaning were ward dependent and since specific cleaners work on different wards, the results likely reflect characteristics of the individual cleaning staff.

More worryingly, sickening bacteria was still detected in 40% of samples taken from the cleanest toilets (those with no detectable UV marker).