{"title":"A loophole in soap dispensers mediates contamination with Gram-negative bacteria","authors":"Ralf Lucassen, Nicole van Leuven, Dirk Bockmühl","doi":"10.1002/mbo3.1384","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p>Liquid soap dispensers are widely used in domestic and clinical settings. In previous studies, the risk of bacterial contamination of refillable systems was pointed out and a bacterial contamination rate of 25%, with values of up to 10<sup>8</sup> colony-forming units/mL (CFU/mL), was reported. However, the route of contamination remains elusive. To address this point, we determined the microbial contamination of refillable standard pump dispensers and nonrefillable press-dispenser systems. Following the collection of 104 liquid soap dispensers from hotel rooms across Germany, bacterial counts were determined. Isolates of samples containing nonfastidious Gram-negative<sup>(lac−)</sup> bacteria were further analyzed by the Vitek 2 system for the determination of species. 70.2% of the refillable pump dispensers (mean total bacterial count = 2.2 × 10<sup>5</sup> CFU/mL) but only 10.6% of the nonrefillable press dispensers, were contaminated (mean total bacterial count = 1.5 × 10<sup>1</sup> CFU/mL). Of samples containing <i>nonfastidious Gram-negative</i><sup>(lac−)</sup> bacteria, <i>Pluralibacter gergoviae</i> was present in 41.7%, <i>Pseudomonads</i> (<i>Pseudomonas aeruginosa</i> and <i>Pseudomonas putida</i>) in 25%, <i>Serratia marcescens</i> in 16.7%, and <i>Klebsiella oxytoca</i> and <i>Pasteurella testudinis</i> in 8.3%. After the initial assessment, we contaminated different dispensing systems with <i>P. aeruginosa/P. gergoviae</i>, to reveal the route of contamination and identied the pressure release of standard pump dispensers as the loophole for microbial contamination.</p>","PeriodicalId":18573,"journal":{"name":"MicrobiologyOpen","volume":"12 5","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.9000,"publicationDate":"2023-09-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/mbo3.1384","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"MicrobiologyOpen","FirstCategoryId":"99","ListUrlMain":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/mbo3.1384","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"MICROBIOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Liquid soap dispensers are widely used in domestic and clinical settings. In previous studies, the risk of bacterial contamination of refillable systems was pointed out and a bacterial contamination rate of 25%, with values of up to 108 colony-forming units/mL (CFU/mL), was reported. However, the route of contamination remains elusive. To address this point, we determined the microbial contamination of refillable standard pump dispensers and nonrefillable press-dispenser systems. Following the collection of 104 liquid soap dispensers from hotel rooms across Germany, bacterial counts were determined. Isolates of samples containing nonfastidious Gram-negative(lac−) bacteria were further analyzed by the Vitek 2 system for the determination of species. 70.2% of the refillable pump dispensers (mean total bacterial count = 2.2 × 105 CFU/mL) but only 10.6% of the nonrefillable press dispensers, were contaminated (mean total bacterial count = 1.5 × 101 CFU/mL). Of samples containing nonfastidious Gram-negative(lac−) bacteria, Pluralibacter gergoviae was present in 41.7%, Pseudomonads (Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Pseudomonas putida) in 25%, Serratia marcescens in 16.7%, and Klebsiella oxytoca and Pasteurella testudinis in 8.3%. After the initial assessment, we contaminated different dispensing systems with P. aeruginosa/P. gergoviae, to reveal the route of contamination and identied the pressure release of standard pump dispensers as the loophole for microbial contamination.
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