Findings from a recent study in Antimicrobial Resistance & Infection Control reinforce the need for the thorough cleaning of hospital door handles.
Researchers swabbed 120 door handles, stair railings and other high-touch areas in three hospitals in Ghana. A total of 47 of the swabs (39 percent) were positive for S. aureus, and eight of them were methicillin-resistant S. aureus. One of those MRSA isolates was resistant to eight types of antibiotics, and all of them were resistant to at least four antibiotics.
"The high multi-drug resistance of MRSA in hospital environments in Ghana reinforces the need for the effective and routine cleaning of door handles in hospitals," the study concludes. "Further investigation is required to understand whether S. aureus from door handles could be the possible causes of nosocomial diseases in the hospitals."