Hygiene evaluation of hospital textiles

Abstract

Improperly disinfected hospital textiles can be the cause of transmission of health infections, which represent complications in the treatment of patients and cause economic damage. A surveillance program, which includes hygiene control and sampling of cleaned hospital textiles, can prevent hospital infections. The methods, depending on the textile sampling and the state of the fabric at the end of the process, can be destructive or non-destructive. This research includes the testing of textile hygiene using a non-destructive washing method using the Morapex A device. The paper compares the efficiency of the Morapex device with the most commonly used textile sampling methods using swabs and RODAC agar plates. These methods proved to be worse and less efficient, primarily due to the rough and uneven three-dimensional surface of the fabric, while the Morapex device proved to be good and suitable for non-destructive testing of textile hygiene.