How Clean Is the Linen at My Hospital? The Mucorales on Unclean Linen Discovery Study of Large United States Transplant and Cancer Centers.

Sundermann, Alexander J; Clancy, Cornelius J; Pasculle, A William; Liu, Guojun; Cumbie, Richard B; Driscoll, Eileen; Ayres, Ashley; Donahue, Lisa et al. · Clin Infect Dis · 2019

cross_sectional · Level IV

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Abstract

Mucormycosis outbreaks have been linked to contaminated linen. We performed fungal cultures on freshly-laundered linens at 15 transplant and cancer hospitals. At 33% of hospitals, the linens were visibly unclean. At 20%, Mucorales were recovered from >10% of linens. Studies are needed to understand the clinical significance of our findings.

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