One otherwise normal daily routine for many hospital workers could actually be dramatically increase the spread of ‘deadly hospital superbugs’, as researchers have revealed the health risk in a newly established study.
It’s worryingly easy to find health dangers in every aspect of life, as anything from your gas cooker to the soil that your food grows in could very well contain materials that increase the risk of developing cancer and other life-threatening diseases.
Even sitting in a chair – something that every office worker worldwide does for hours upon end every day – has been shown to cause health deficiencies down the line, yet one innocuous activity of healthcare workers could be putting everyone at risk of deadly bacteria.
Hospital workers washing their uniforms at home could increase risk the spread of deadly bacteria (Getty Stock)
As reported by the Manchester Evening News, a new study by researchers at Leicester’s De Montfort University has outlined the severe risks that come with hospital workers washing their uniforms at home.
While you’d think that keeping the clothes you wear while working in a hospital clean is not only a good idea but an essential one too, this new research suggests that the washing machines we have at home aren’t capable of killing the most dangerous bacteria that typically resides in healthcare environments.
Antibiotic resistant bacteria and harmful pathogens are more commonly found in hospitals and therefore are likely to attach themselves to the clothes of those working there, and these are significantly more challenging for doctors to treat when people become infected.
“Our research shows that domestic washing machines often fail to disinfect textiles, allowing antibiotic-resistant bacteria to survive,” outlines study lead Professor Katie Laird, adding that “the findings suggest that many home washing machines may be insufficient for decontaminating healthcare worker uniforms, and may be contributing to the spread of hospital-acquired infections and antibiotic resistance.”
Home washing machines are not only incapable of decontaminating this bacteria, but it can also spread to other normal clothes (Getty Stock)
It’s not just the hospital uniforms themselves that are the problem either, as tests have shown that washing these antibiotic-resistant bacteria infected clothes can become present in the biofilms of the washing machine itself, which potentially spreads the bacteria to your other ‘normal’ clothes.
The study has suggested for hospitals to introduce internal measures to wash and decontaminate uniforms, as that should not only deal with getting rid of the bacteria more efficiently, but also eliminate the risk of it spreading to other clothes through the washing machines themselves.
“Alternatively, healthcare facilities could use on-site industrial machines to launder uniforms to improve patient safety and control the spread of antibiotic-resistant pathogens,” Dr Laird suggests in the study, and that certainly would do a lot to decrease the newly-revealed risk.
