King, MF orcid.org/0000-0001-7010-476X, Lopez Garcia, M orcid.org/0000-0003-3833-8595, Atedoghu, KP et al. (7 more authors) (2020) Bacterial transfer to fingertips during sequential surface contacts with and without gloves. Indoor Air, 30 (5). pp. 993-1004. ISSN 0905-6947
Abstract
Bacterial transmission from contaminated surfaces via hand contact plays a critical role in disease spread. However, the fomite‐to‐finger transfer efficiency of microorganisms during multiple sequential surface contacts with and without gloves has not been formerly investigated. We measured the quantity of Escherichia coli on fingertips of participants after 1‐8 sequential contacts with inoculated plastic coupons with and without nitrile gloves. A Bayesian approach was used to develop a mechanistic model of pathogen accretion to examine finger loading as a function of the difference between E coli on surfaces and fingers. We used the model to determine the coefficient of transfer efficiency (λ ), and influence of swabbing efficiency and finger area. Results showed that λ for bare skin was higher (49%, 95% CI = 32%‐72%) than for gloved hands (30%, CI = 17%‐49%). Microbial load tended toward a dynamic equilibrium after four and six contacts for gloved hands and bare skin, respectively. Individual differences between volunteers’ hands had a negligible effect compared with use of gloves (P < .01). Gloves reduced loading by 4.7% (CI = −12%‐21%) over bare skin contacts, while 20% of participants accrued more microorganisms on gloved hands. This was due to poor fitting, which created a larger finger surface area than bare hands.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2020 The Authors. Indoor Air published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. |
Keywords: | bacterial transmission; Bayesian model; Escherichia coli; hospital gloves; hospital surface contact; transfer efficiency |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Engineering & Physical Sciences (Leeds) > School of Civil Engineering (Leeds) The University of Leeds > Faculty of Engineering & Physical Sciences (Leeds) > School of Mathematics (Leeds) > Applied Mathematics (Leeds) |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number EPSRC (Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council) EP/P023312/1 |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 17 Apr 2020 11:24 |
Last Modified: | 20 Dec 2024 14:25 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Wiley |
Identification Number: | 10.1111/ina.12682 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:159544 |