Stethoscopes as possible vectors of infection by staphylococci.

Stethoscopes as possible vectors of infection by staphylococci.

Stethoscopes: a potential vector of infection?

STUDY OBJECTIVES To survey emergency care providers about their stethoscope-cleaning measures and to determine the correlation between these measures and the extent of Staphylococcus carriage. DESIGN Prospective cross-sectional analysis. SETTING University-affiliated community hospital ED. PARTICIPANTS One hundred fifty health care providers, comprising emergency medicine house staff and ...

Periodontal Pockets as a Potential Source of Infection: a Case of Possible Odontogenic Septic Pulmonary Embolism

Although dental foci can be sources of bacteremia and bacterial endocarditis, hematogenous spread of infection presented with septic pulmonary embolism apparently is rare. The occurrence of septic pulmonary embolism in patients with periodontal disease without suppurative thrombophlebitis of the great vessels of the neck is well documented but to our knowledge, there is no report on septic pulm...

Carrying Stethoscopes

are shared by many of us, against the indecent practice of hanging one's stethoscope round the neck like a hangman's noose. This bad practice has become much in vogue during the last few years and it is a very common sight to find doctors riding a tram or a bus or going by a rickshaw or walking on the streets with their stethoscopes hanging round the neck. It may be argued to be a matter of con...

Bacteriological assessment of stethoscopes used by medical students in Nigeria: implications for nosocomial infection control.

Our study assessed bacteria on swabs taken from the surface of the diaphragm of stethoscopes used by medical students in Nigeria. We found bacterial contamination on 80.1% of the stethoscopes. Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa were major isolates. Bacterial colonization was highest among stethoscopes cleaned with only water and those never cleaned with any agent or never cleaned ...