Table of Contents
Title Page
Certification
Dedication
Acknowledgements
Table of Contents
Chapter One
- Introduction
Chapter Two
- Formites
- Persistence of Bacteria
- Persistence of Viruses
- Persistence of Fungi
- Persistence of Pathogenic Micro-organisms
Chapter Three
- Role of Formites in Viral Disease Transmission
- Mechanism of Transmission from formites to susceptible Patients
- Factors influencing the survival; of microorganisms in the environment.
- Temperature
- Biofilms
- Relative Humidity
- Other factors
Chapter Four
Summary and Conclusion
- Summary and Conclusion
- Summary
- Conclusion
- Reference
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Microorganisms may be transmitted from animated sources to inanimate environmental sources, which may become secondary reservoirs if they meet the needs of transmitted pathogens to survive and to multiply. In healthcare settings, however,contaminated surfaces, which may not always be optimal for microbial survival and multiplication, still may play a role in the chain of infection, since surfaces close to the patients’ environment may be touched at high frequencies, allowing transmission from animated sources to others via contaminated inanimate surfaces. Arising from this, the knowledge on the survival of bacteria, fungi, viruses and protozoa on surfaces, and hence, in a broader sense, in the human environment, is important for planning and implementing tactics for prevention of Healthcare-acquired Infections (HAI). Furthermore, such knowledge will also assist ensuring the biosynthesis microbiological and biomedical laboratories, food-handling settings, and for hygienic behaviour in the everyday life to prevent transmission of infectious diseases.One example of microorganisms with relatively short ability of persisting in the environment is the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) coronavirus (CoV),which became pandemic within months in China in 2002. This virus retainsinfectivity on different substrates up to 9 days, as compared to the influenzavirus, which demonstrates a relatively long persistence in the environment up to 4 weeks [112]. Both viruses are airborne transmitted infectious agents, however,they may also be transmitted via hand-surface contacts, supporting the relevance of hand hygiene and personal protection against infection.Because of a number of microorganisms’ ability to persist and survive for long term periods on surfaces, particularly in healthcare settings, the usage of antimicrobially impregnated surfaces is increasingly discussed [82]. However,because of the required long contact times of microorganisms on antimicrobial surfaces [64, 65, 25, 45], such technologies may be useful for surfaces with low frequency of hand contacts.
FORMITES: FRIENDS OR FOES
