Deadly superbug lurking in hospital privacy curtains

HOSPITAL privacy curtains are a breeding ground for a potentially deadly superbug, a study has found.

Within just two weeks of fitting, nearly nine out of ten curtains were found to be infected with the drug resistant bacteria MRSA.

Patients could be put at risk if medical staff touch curtain hems and then fail to wash their hands before attending to them.

Hospitals in the UK routinely launder curtains that are not visibly dirty every six months – posing the question whether curtains are a hidden ‘reservoir’ of superbugs.

One expert advises patients to ‘not be afraid’ to ask doctors if they have washed their hands if they see them touching a curtain.

MRSA can kill people with weakened immune systems and has become resistant to traditional antibiotics like penicillin. It can also lead to pneumonia or sepsis.

In a study ten freshly laundered polyester curtains were tracked by scientists in a burns unit in a busy hospital over a 21-day period.

The privacy curtains were free of contamination when first hung in patient rooms, and no room was occupied by a patient who had contracted MRSA.

Each day, the curtains were tested for the presence of the superbug on their hems, the area which is most frequently touched.

‘High risk of cross contamination’

By day ten, one set of curtains had tested positive. But by day 14, 87.5 per cent of the curtains had been contaminated by MRSA.

By contrast, another set of ten curtains hung in an area of the hospital away from patients stayed clean for the entire 21 days. The experiment was carried out at the Health Services Centre in Winnipeg, Canada. The report was published in the American Journal of Infection Control.

Dr Kevin Shek, the study’s lead author said: ‘We know privacy curtains pose a high risk for cross-contamination because they are frequently touched but infrequently changed. The high rate of contamination we saw by the fourteenth day may represent an opportune time to intervene, either by cleaning or replacing the curtains.’

Janet Haas, of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, said: ‘Keeping the patient’s environment clean is a critical component in preventing healthcare-associated infections. Because privacy curtains could be a mode of disease transmission, maintaining a schedule of regular cleaning offers another potential way to protect patients from harm.’

In the NHS, the national curtain cleaning specification states: ‘Curtains/blinds should be visibly clean with no blood and body substances, dust, dirt, debris, stains or spillages.’

NHS hospitals routinely clean or change their privacy curtains – in some cases they are disposable – every six months.