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Nosocomial Transmission of Salmonella Gastroenteritis to Laundry Workers in a Nursing Home

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Steven M. Standaert ,
Robert H. Hutcheson  and
William Schaffner
Steven M. Standaert
Affiliation:
Epidemic Intelligence Service, Division of Field Epidemiology, Epidemiology Program Office, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia
Robert H. Hutcheson
Affiliation:
Tennessee Department of Health, Nashville, Tennessee
William Schaffner*
Affiliation:
Department of Preventive Medicine, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, Tennessee
*
Department of Preventive Medicine, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, A-1124 Medical Center North, Nashville, TN 37232-2637
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Abstract

Background:

Outbreaks of salmonella gastroenteritis in nursing homes are common. Person-to-person transmission to nursing home personnel occurs occasionally, but infection of laundry staff as a result of handling soiled linen rarely has been reported.

Objective:

To examine the nosocomial transmission of infection to laundry staff during an outbreak of salmonellosis in a nursing home.

Setting:

A 250-bed nursing home in a rural Tennessee county.

Methods:

Residents and staff of the nursing home were interviewed and cultures of stool samples examined for enteric pathogens.

Results:

Stool cultures from 32 residents and 8 employees were positive for Salmonella hadar. Infection among the residents was food-borne, but infection among employees likely represented secondary transmission, as none of the employees ate food prepared in the kitchen and their onset of symptoms occurred seven to 10 days after that of ill residents. Three laundry personnel who had no contact with residents were infected. Most of the ill residents (81%) were incontinent, which led to an increase in both the degree of fecal soiling and the amount of soiled linen received by the laundry during the outbreak. Laundry personnel regularly ate in the laundry room, did not wear protective clothing, and did not wear gloves consistently while handling soiled laundry,

Conclusions:

This investigation implicates linen soiled with feces as the source of nosocomial S hadar infection in laundry workers and underscores the importance of using appropriate precautions when handling linen.

Type
Original Articles
Information
Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology , Volume 15 , Issue 1 , January 1994 , pp. 22 - 26
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America 1994 

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