Proper cleaning and handling of healthcare laundry are important maintaining hygienically-clean textiles, according to an article on the Medical Express website.
The article quotes a new review that highlights evidence-based strategies to inhibit laundry contamination.
The review, based on findings and recommendations from peer-reviewed studies, as well as current standards and guidelines, is published online in Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology, the journal of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA).
"We asked the question if current industrial laundry processes are sufficient to interrupt patient-to-patient transmission via clean healthcare textiles (HCT). The evidence we examined suggests this is indeed the case," said Lynne Sehulster, PhD, an infectious disease epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and lead author.
Laundry recommendations include adherence to standard precautions (gown and gloves) and minimal textile agitation when handling contaminated laundry in isolation rooms.
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