Studies were conducted on the microbiological quality of fluids associated with different types of dialysis systems located in six dialysis centers and 14 homes. Included were (i) single-pass systems employing either parallel flow (Kiil or Gambro) or capillary cartridge dialyzers and (ii) recirculating single-pass and batch recirculating systems using coil dialyzers. Microbiological assays were...

It is the responsibility of the pharmaceutical industry that these microbiological standards are maintained until secondary packaging of the drug product. Knowledge of the microbiological quality of the used excipients and active ingredients, microbiological monitoring of the environment in which the pharmaceuticals are produced, as well as release-testing of the final drug product contribute t...

The aim of the study was to evaluate the usefulness of bioluminescence in the determination of cleanliness of steel surfaces characterised by different roughness (0.6 and 0.8 μm). The applicability of the method was assessed based on correlations between the number of relative light units (RLU) measured with a luminometer and microbial counts determined by the conventional microbiological metho...

Alheiras are traditional smoked naturally fermented meat sausages produced in the north of Portugal. They have not previously been characterized as to their chemical and microbiological status. pH and salt levels are insufficient to assure microbiological safety, there is ample opportunity for post-cooking contamination; the products require chill storage and cooking before consumption. Heavy m...

A novel approach based on headspace solid-phase microextraction (HS-SPME) combined with comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography-time-of-flight mass spectrometry (GC×GC-ToFMS) was developed for the simultaneous screening of microbial and mite contamination level in cereals and coffee beans. The proposed approach emerges as a powerful tool for the rapid assessment of the microbial contam...

Introduction Under the Ordinance on the implementation of compulsory measures to be observed in selected plants and facilities in order to reduce microbiological and other kinds of meat contamination, meat products and other foodstu s of animal origin intended for human use, the implementation of compulsory measures and the compliance to the stipulated veterinary and safety conditions applicabl...

BACKGROUND Non-critical medical devices, as stethoscopes, have long been considered as vectors in microorganisms' transmission. Cleaning standards for non-critical medical equipment are often unclear. This study was designed to assess the attitude of General Practitioners (GPs) towards cleaning their stethoscope and the degree of microbiological contamination of doctor's instrument in outpatien...

In the State of Rio Grande do Sul (RS), Southern Brazil, a good manufacturing practices regulation was published recommending two disinfection methods for cleaning cloths used in food services. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the efficacy of those methods. Cleaning cloths were sampled without prior notice at food services, on common working days. For the analyses, the cloths were d...

Diverse land use activities can elevate risk of microbiological contamination entering stream headwaters. Spatially distributed water quality monitoring carried out across a 17 km(2) agricultural catchment aimed to characterize microbiological contamination reaching surface water and investigate whether winter agricultural land use restrictions proved effective in addressing water quality degra...

We used a prospective, longitudinal cohort enrolled as part of a program evaluation to assess the relationship between drinking water microbiological quality and child diarrhea. We included 50 villages across rural Bangladesh. Within each village field-workers enrolled a systematic random sample of 10 households with a child under the age of 3 years. Community monitors visited households monthl...