The stethoscope has always been an important element of a physician's toolkit when it comes to examining patients. The widespread use of stethoscopes by health-care workers for patient examinations makes them a potential source of nosocomial infection transmission. The goal of this study was to see if stethoscopes used by different health-care professionals in Attat Hospital may transmit bacteria. From April to June 2018, a cross-sectional study was done in the molecular laboratory of Wolkite University's department of biotechnology and biology. A total of 26 stethoscopes from health workers who had direct contact with patients were gathered during the study period. The sample was obtained using a sterile cotton-tipped applicator saturated in a sterile solution of physiologic saline (0.85% sodium chloride) to swab the whole surface of the stethoscope's diaphragm and then inoculated into macconkey agar, tryptone soya agar, and blood agar medium. 18 (69.2%) stethoscopes out of total collected stethoscopes had bacterial growth, and 12 bacterial isolates were selected and characterized to genus level. Isolates include staphylococcus aureus (37.5%), coagulase negative staphylococci (28.12%), Streptococcus sp. (21.88%), and Bacillus sp. (12.5%). All isolates were susceptible to the co-trimoxazole and ciprofloxacine, while resistant to cifoxitine. They showed intermediate growth against vancomycine. All except streptococcus were found resistant against penicillin. Both S. aureus and CoNS were sensitive to the chloramphenicol; Streptococcus was intermediate while bacillus was resistant to the chloramphenicol. All stethoscopes (42.2%) that had never been cleaned and were last cleaned a week ago were severely contaminated, while those washed multiple times a day and cleansed between each patient before the examination of the patient had lower levels of contamination (27%).
| Published in | International Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology (Volume 7, Issue 1) |
| DOI | 10.11648/j.ijmb.20220701.11 |
| Page(s) | 1-10 |
| Creative Commons |
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited. |
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Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group |
Isolates, Nosocomial Infection, Stethoscope
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APA Style
Tamirat Salile Sada. (2022). Bacteriological Assessment of Stethoscope Used by Health Care Personnel in Attat Hospital, Snnp, Gurage Zone, Ethiopia. International Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology, 7(1), 1-10. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijmb.20220701.11
ACS Style
Tamirat Salile Sada. Bacteriological Assessment of Stethoscope Used by Health Care Personnel in Attat Hospital, Snnp, Gurage Zone, Ethiopia. Int. J. Microbiol. Biotechnol. 2022, 7(1), 1-10. doi: 10.11648/j.ijmb.20220701.11
AMA Style
Tamirat Salile Sada. Bacteriological Assessment of Stethoscope Used by Health Care Personnel in Attat Hospital, Snnp, Gurage Zone, Ethiopia. Int J Microbiol Biotechnol. 2022;7(1):1-10. doi: 10.11648/j.ijmb.20220701.11
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Download@article{10.11648/j.ijmb.20220701.11,
author = {Tamirat Salile Sada},
title = {Bacteriological Assessment of Stethoscope Used by Health Care Personnel in Attat Hospital, Snnp, Gurage Zone, Ethiopia},
journal = {International Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology},
volume = {7},
number = {1},
pages = {1-10},
doi = {10.11648/j.ijmb.20220701.11},
url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijmb.20220701.11},
eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ijmb.20220701.11},
abstract = {The stethoscope has always been an important element of a physician's toolkit when it comes to examining patients. The widespread use of stethoscopes by health-care workers for patient examinations makes them a potential source of nosocomial infection transmission. The goal of this study was to see if stethoscopes used by different health-care professionals in Attat Hospital may transmit bacteria. From April to June 2018, a cross-sectional study was done in the molecular laboratory of Wolkite University's department of biotechnology and biology. A total of 26 stethoscopes from health workers who had direct contact with patients were gathered during the study period. The sample was obtained using a sterile cotton-tipped applicator saturated in a sterile solution of physiologic saline (0.85% sodium chloride) to swab the whole surface of the stethoscope's diaphragm and then inoculated into macconkey agar, tryptone soya agar, and blood agar medium. 18 (69.2%) stethoscopes out of total collected stethoscopes had bacterial growth, and 12 bacterial isolates were selected and characterized to genus level. Isolates include staphylococcus aureus (37.5%), coagulase negative staphylococci (28.12%), Streptococcus sp. (21.88%), and Bacillus sp. (12.5%). All isolates were susceptible to the co-trimoxazole and ciprofloxacine, while resistant to cifoxitine. They showed intermediate growth against vancomycine. All except streptococcus were found resistant against penicillin. Both S. aureus and CoNS were sensitive to the chloramphenicol; Streptococcus was intermediate while bacillus was resistant to the chloramphenicol. All stethoscopes (42.2%) that had never been cleaned and were last cleaned a week ago were severely contaminated, while those washed multiple times a day and cleansed between each patient before the examination of the patient had lower levels of contamination (27%).},
year = {2022}
}
TY - JOUR T1 - Bacteriological Assessment of Stethoscope Used by Health Care Personnel in Attat Hospital, Snnp, Gurage Zone, Ethiopia AU - Tamirat Salile Sada Y1 - 2022/02/05 PY - 2022 N1 - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijmb.20220701.11 DO - 10.11648/j.ijmb.20220701.11 T2 - International Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology JF - International Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology JO - International Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology SP - 1 EP - 10 PB - Science Publishing Group SN - 2578-9686 UR - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijmb.20220701.11 AB - The stethoscope has always been an important element of a physician's toolkit when it comes to examining patients. The widespread use of stethoscopes by health-care workers for patient examinations makes them a potential source of nosocomial infection transmission. The goal of this study was to see if stethoscopes used by different health-care professionals in Attat Hospital may transmit bacteria. From April to June 2018, a cross-sectional study was done in the molecular laboratory of Wolkite University's department of biotechnology and biology. A total of 26 stethoscopes from health workers who had direct contact with patients were gathered during the study period. The sample was obtained using a sterile cotton-tipped applicator saturated in a sterile solution of physiologic saline (0.85% sodium chloride) to swab the whole surface of the stethoscope's diaphragm and then inoculated into macconkey agar, tryptone soya agar, and blood agar medium. 18 (69.2%) stethoscopes out of total collected stethoscopes had bacterial growth, and 12 bacterial isolates were selected and characterized to genus level. Isolates include staphylococcus aureus (37.5%), coagulase negative staphylococci (28.12%), Streptococcus sp. (21.88%), and Bacillus sp. (12.5%). All isolates were susceptible to the co-trimoxazole and ciprofloxacine, while resistant to cifoxitine. They showed intermediate growth against vancomycine. All except streptococcus were found resistant against penicillin. Both S. aureus and CoNS were sensitive to the chloramphenicol; Streptococcus was intermediate while bacillus was resistant to the chloramphenicol. All stethoscopes (42.2%) that had never been cleaned and were last cleaned a week ago were severely contaminated, while those washed multiple times a day and cleansed between each patient before the examination of the patient had lower levels of contamination (27%). VL - 7 IS - 1 ER -
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