Overcoming contamination in hospital: Finding hidden source of bacteria in a radiopharmacy.

By: Albert Gonzalez

    Image of the locations sampled for bacterial content on surfaces in the hospital's radiopharmacy. Each red diamond shows the sampled location, and the arrows display the bacterial contamination's movement. 

Hospitals need to be as clean as possible; the patients' health rests on it. This being said, preventing bacterial contamination in a hospital environment is essential. A recent investigation surrounding sudden and persistent bacterial contamination of a hospital's radiopharmacy was conducted. Radiopharmacies are the section of the hospital that holds radioactive medicine. These medicines are highly important; protecting them from contamination is vital to their maintenance. In this investigation, the radiopharmacy unit of a university teaching hospital searched for the source of an ongoing bacterial contamination. They did this by testing the bacterial content of many surfaces. An interesting new method they used involved placing sterile water into a container, shaking it, and testing it to see what kinds of bacteria were on the surfaces of the container. The unit discovered that the contamination source came from reusable plastic containers. From the data gathered through this investigation, the unit realized the potential of old plastic containers to be a source of bacterial contamination and the effectiveness of a method for sampling surfaces for bacteria. These findings can be shared with other hospitals and help keep them free from contamination, ultimately ensuring patients' health.

Original article: Armando, M., Barthelemi, L., Couret, I., Verdier, C., Dupont, C., Jumas-Bilak, E., Grau, D., (2022) Recurrent environmental contamination in a centralized radiopharmacy unit by Achromobacter spp: Results of a large microbiological investigation. American Journal of Infection Control,  51, 5., 557-562.