Quantifying pathogen infection risks from household laundry practices.

Autor: Reynolds KA; The Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA., Verhougstraete MP; The Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA., Mena KD; School of Public Health, The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, El Paso, TX, USA., Sattar SA; Faculty of Medicine, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada., Scott EA; Center for Hygiene and Health, Department of Biology, Simmons University, Boston, MA, USA., Gerba CP; Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: Journal of applied microbiology [J Appl Microbiol] 2022 Feb; Vol. 132 (2), pp. 1435-1448. Date of Electronic Publication: 2021 Sep 18.
DOI: 10.1111/jam.15273
Abstrakt: Aims: Contaminated laundry can spread infections. However, current directives for safe laundering are limited to healthcare settings and not reflective of domestic conditions. We aimed to use quantitative microbial risk assessment to evaluate household laundering practices (e.g., detergent selection, washing and drying temperatures, and sanitizer use) relative to log 10 reductions in pathogens and infection risks during the clothes sorting, washer/dryer loading, folding and storing steps.
Methods and Results: Using published data, we characterized laundry infection risks for respiratory and enteric pathogens relative to a single user contact scenario and a 1.0 × 10 -6 acceptable risk threshold. For respiratory pathogens, risks following cold water wash temperatures (e.g. median 14.4℃) and standard detergents ranged from 2.2 × 10 -5 to 2.2 × 10 -7 . Use of advanced, enzymatic detergents reduced risks to 8.6 × 10 -8 and 2.2 × 10 -11 respectively. For enteric pathogens, however, hot water, advanced detergents, sanitizing agents and drying are needed to reach risk targets.
Significance and Impact of the Study: Conclusions provide guidance for household laundry practices to achieve targeted risk reductions, given a single user contact scenario. A key finding was that hand hygiene implemented at critical control points in the laundering process was the most significant driver of infection prevention, additionally reducing infection risks by up to 6 log 10 .
(© 2021 The Authors. Journal of Applied Microbiology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Society for Applied Microbiology.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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