Centre for Infectious Diseases and International Health, Windeyer Institute of Medical Sciences, University College London, London WC1T 4JF, UK.
Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol. 2011 Nov;32(11):1103-8. doi: 10.1086/662183. Epub 2011 Sep 20.
Most professionals in the healthcare environment wear uniforms. For the purpose of this study, we concentrated on nurses' uniforms. In the United Kingdom, many nurses are expected to launder their uniforms at home by using a domestic washing machine that frequently has low-temperature wash cycles. We have investigated whether the use of low-temperature wash cycles results in a microbiologically acceptable product to wear on the wards.
We have assessed the bioburden on uniforms before and after laundry and the effectiveness of low-temperature wash cycles and ironing on removal of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and Acinetobacter baumannii. We did not assess the role of tumble drying.
We demonstrate contamination of uniforms by gram-negative bacteria after wash, the removal of MRSA at low-temperature wash cycles in the presence of detergent, and the eradication of gram-negative bacteria after ironing.
Our conclusions are that laundry in a domestic situation at 60°C (140°F) for 10 minutes is sufficient to decontaminate hospital uniforms and reduces the bacterial load by more than 7-log reduction, that items left in the pockets are decontaminated to the same extent, that the addition of either a biological detergent or a nonbiological detergent is beneficial in removing MRSA from experimentally contaminated swatches, and that uniforms become recontaminated with low numbers of principally gram-negative bacteria after laundry but that these are effectively removed by ironing.
医疗环境中的大多数专业人员都穿着制服。在这项研究中，我们专注于护士制服。在英国，许多护士都需要在家中使用低温洗涤循环的家用洗衣机清洗制服。我们研究了使用低温洗涤循环是否会导致可在病房内穿着的微生物学上可接受的产品。
我们评估了洗涤前后制服上的生物负荷以及低温洗涤循环和熨烫对去除耐甲氧西林金黄色葡萄球菌（MRSA）和鲍曼不动杆菌的效果。我们没有评估滚动干燥的作用。
我们证明了洗涤后制服上会被革兰氏阴性菌污染，在存在洗涤剂的情况下，低温洗涤循环可去除 MRSA，熨烫后可消灭革兰氏阴性菌。
我们的结论是，在 60°C（140°F）下洗涤 10 分钟足以对医院制服进行消毒，并将细菌负荷减少 7 个对数级以上，口袋中的物品也会被同样程度地消毒，添加生物洗涤剂或非生物洗涤剂都有助于从受实验污染的样本中去除 MRSA，而且洗涤后制服会重新被数量较少的主要是革兰氏阴性菌污染，但这些细菌可以通过熨烫有效地去除。
