Environmental, clinical and bio-cleaning surveillance in intensive care units of the E. Herriot Hospital (Hospices Civils de Lyon)

Contaminated environment plays an important role in the acquisition of nosocomial pathogens by patients hospitalized in Intensive Care Units (ICUs). Immediate zones around patient’s bed can be a reservoir of potential pathogens, where they can survive for many months.

In this project, financed partially by ANIOS Laboratories, we aim to describe microbial ecology of two ICU rooms, and to explore the potential link between environmental contamination and patient’s colonization and/or infection. Environmental samples from room surfaces (at five fixed points) will be carried out with sterile wipes once monthly (for three years), just before daily cleaning, in one room of two ICUs of the Edouard Herriot Hospital. Environmental sampling timetable will be modified if necessary, according to units’ availability and to preliminary results. The results of these environmental samples will be validated by the head of the environmental microbiology laboratory. Identified bacteria will be evaluated in relation to bio-cleaning and to clinical samplings from patients hospitalized in the same rooms, to better identify the environmental microbiological risk of nosocomial infections acquired in ICU. Four environmental germs species will be stocked at laboratory at -40°C : Enterococcus faecium, Staphylococcus aureus, Acinetobacter baumannii and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Their resistance profile will be determined with antibiograms realised at HCL microbiology laboratory. Additionally, these strains will be explored for further investigation of their susceptibility to disinfectants and antibiotics, in order to explore a possible decrease in susceptibility to antibiotics after exposure to disinfectants.