Icky

eMJA: What’s hanging around your neck? Pathogenic bacteria on identity badges and lanyards

After previous studies finding harmful germs on doctors and nurses' neckties, stethoscopes and pens, an Australian study has been done to test ID cards and the lanyards that health care workers often keep them on.

The results were not good, especially for lanyards:

A total of 27 lanyards [out of 71 tested] were identified with pathogenic bacteria, compared with 18 badges. Analysing lanyards and badges as a combined group, seven had methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, 29 had methicillin-sensitive S. aureus (MSSA), four had Enterococcus spp and five had aerobic gram-negative bacilli. Lanyards were found to be contaminated with 10 times the median bacterial load per area sampled compared with identity badges. There were no significant differences between nurses and doctors in total median bacterial counts on items carried, but doctors had 4.41 times the risk of carrying MSSA on lanyards

The same edition of the Journal carries a fairly cranky sounding editorial that complains that we don't really need more studies showing where germs in hospitals can be found:

The United Kingdom has just mandated a “bare below the elbows” dress code in its hospitals.5 This means no more coats or even wristwatches, despite a lack of evidence that these items play a major role in transmitting MRSA. The UK Prime Minister has called for better cleaning of wards, in the belief that this is the key to controlling MRSA.5 While there is some merit in these proposals, they are focusing on elements that are minor compared with the most important one — how best to stop MRSA spreading via hands....

We don’t need more environmental-type studies without clinical endpoints. We need studies in which we intervene and show that the interventions reduce the number of people infected with MRSA.