PEDIATRICS Vol. 32 No. 6 December 1963, pp. 956-965
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow P3Rs: Submit a response
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me when P3Rs are posted
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow E-mail this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My File Cabinet
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow reprints & permissions
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via CrossRef
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Love, G. J.
Right arrow Articles by Hatch, T. F.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Love, G. J.
Right arrow Articles by Hatch, T. F.

RELATION OF INTENSITY OF STAPHYLOCOCCAL INFECTION IN NEWBORN INFANTS TO CONTAMINATION OF NURSES' HANDS AND SURROUNDING ENVIRONMENT

Gory J. Love D.Sc.(Hyg.)1, Horace M. Gezon M.D.1, Donovan J. Thompson Ph.D.1, Kenneth D. Rogers M.D.1, and Theodore F. Hatch M.S.1

1 Graduate School of Public Health and School of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

A method for measuring the intensity of staphylococcal infection and contamination was devised and used to study staphylococcal infections in a newborn nursery. Four hundred infants had multiple cultures from various body sites and from their immediate environment. The degree of intensity of infection at any given body site was associated directly with total body infection intensity and intensity of contamination in the surrounding environment. When nurses contacted babies with staphylococci on their bodies or in their immediate environment, staphylococci could be isolated subsequently from the nurses' hands 11.8% of the time, in contrast with 0.6% with uninfected and uncontaminated babies. Approximately 95% of the time the phage type from the hand was the same as that in the contacted infant. Two percent of the time, nurses' hands were found to be contaminated with staphylococci before they contacted babies, a majority of which were of the same phage type as found on the baby she had just left. Heavily infected babies contaminated nurses' hands more frequently than did lightly infected babies and certain kinds of nursing care, such as diapering and routine morning care, resulted in more intense nurse hand contamination than did other activities. It is suggested that the measures of infection intensity used in this study have identified babies with different potentials for spreading staphylococcal infections.

Submitted on April 12, 1963
Accepted on June 16, 1963