Environmental Services

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.

Multiple sclerosis (MS) causes progressive paralysis by destroying nerve cells and the spinal cord. It interrupts vision, balance and even thinking. On a suggestion from a colleague, Jeri-Anne Lyons decided to test how the disease responded to a radical therapy exposure to a certain wavelength of light called near-infrared (NIR).

Despite major efforts to keep operating rooms sterile, surgical wound infections remain a serious and stubborn problem, killing up to 8,200 patients a year in the U.S. A study by Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) researchers suggests that narrow-spectrum ultraviolet (UV) light could dramatically reduce such infections without damaging human tissue. The study, conducted in tissue culture, was published today in the journal PLOS ONE.

The aerosolized dust created by vacuums contain bacteria and mold that "could lead to adverse effects in allergic people, infants, and people with compromised immunity," according to researchers at the University of Queensland and Laval University. Their findings are published ahead of print in Applied and Environmental Microbiology.

What happens when some of the brightest minds in epidemiology and infectious disease convene to discuss and debate some of the toughest issues in environmental hygiene and infection prevention? The gathering raises more questions than answers but establishes a firmer footing in the research agenda to help further address current challenges. In May, the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA) held its spring conference and included "Advancing Healthcare Epidemiology and the Role of the Environment" as one of several tracks exploring imperatives in epidemiology.