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A team of Virginia Tech researchers is investigating the challenges presented by four often deadly pathogens that have been documented in household or hospital tap water. They propose fighting these opportunistic pathogens with harmless microbes a probiotic approach for cleaning up plumbing.

While nearly half of the surfaces in healthcare facilities are soft surfaces, such as privacy curtains, soft surface decontamination is often overlooked in todays fast-paced healthcare environment. Studies have shown that just as on hard, nonporous surfaces, bacteria, viruses, and fungi can all thrive on soft surfaces for extended periods of time and contribute to the transmission of microorganisms.