 THURSDAY, Oct. 27, 2016 (HealthDay News) -- The "scrubs" of intensive care unit (ICU) nurses often pick up disease-causing germs, including those resistant to antibiotics, a new study reports. These bad germs spread from patients to the nurses' uniforms (usually the sleeves and pockets) and objects around the room, most often to bed railings, the researchers found. The study tracked the transmission of bacteria known to be particularly troublesome in hospitals, including those such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), Klebsiella pneumoniae and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, which are resistant to many antibiotics. "We know there are bad germs in hospitals but we're just beginning to understand how they are spread," said Deverick J. Anderson, MD, MPH, lead author of the study and associate professor of medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Duke University Medical Center, Durham, N.C. "This study shows we need to be 100 percent diligent about infection control strategies." To prevent spread of these bugs, he notes three components are especially important: hand washing after all patient encounters; using disposable gloves and gowns when treating patients with specific infections, and meticulous and regular cleaning of patients' rooms. Patients can easily spread bacteria that's difficult to control to their nurses' clothing, according to a new study funded by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The study, funded by CDC, included 167 patients who received care from 40 nurses during three separate 12-hour ICU shifts, for a total of 120 individual shifts. All nurses involved in the U.S. study cared for two or more patients per shift and used new scrubs for each shift. Researchers took samples (cultures) twice a day from the nurses' scrubs, patients and the patients' rooms and found 22 (18 percent) transmissions of the same strain of bacteria, confirmed by microbiological and molecular analysis. Same number for bugs spread to nurses, rooms 
 
 Of those transmissions, six (27 per cent) were from patient to nurse, six were from the room to the nurse and 10 (roughly 45 per cent) were from patient to the room. The types of bacteria transmitted were: 7 methicillin-susceptible Staphylococcus aureus (MSSA), 5 MRSA, 3 Stenotrophomonas maltophilia (SM), 3 Acinetobacter baumanii complex (ABC), 2 Klebsiella pneumoniae (KP) and 2 Pseudomonas aeruginosa (PS). Researchers cultured the sleeves, pockets and midriff of the nurses' scrubs and found the pockets and sleeves were most likely to be contaminated. They also took samples from supply carts, beds and bed rails and found the latter most likely to be contaminated. The researchers did not identify any bugs that had spread from nurses to patients, but they noted this kind of transmission likely occurs in hospitals. "We think it's more common than not that these bugs spread to patients in hospitals because of temporary contamination of healthcare workers," Dr. Deverick Anderson, lead author of the study and associate professor of medicine at Duke University Medical Center, Durham, N.C., said in a release.
– A new study looking at how germs are spread at hospitals has identified a surprising potential culprit: nurses' scrubs. Specifically, their pockets and sleeves were the most likely spots to be contaminated, reports WebMD. Another potential hot spot: the bed railings of patients, according to a post about the research at Eureka Alert. The study followed 40 ICU nurses caring for 167 patients at Duke University Hospital. Samples were collected from the nurses' uniforms before and after their 12-hour shifts, as well as from the patients and objects in their rooms such as supply carts and beds. Researchers did not find any instances in which nurses passed along bacteria to patients, but they found that nurses picked them up from patients or the room in multiple instances. "We know there are bad germs in hospitals, but we're just beginning to understand how they are spread," says lead author Deverick Anderson of Duke University. Of the 22 transmissions they discovered, six were from patient to nurse, six were from the room to the nurse, and 10 were from the patient to the room, reports the CBC. The researchers looked for five strains particularly vexing to hospitals because of their resistance to antibiotics. They say one takeaway is the need for stricter protocols on hand washing and the use of gloves, even if a nurse doesn't actually touch a patient while in the room. (One weird potential help in the fight against superbugs: the milk of Tasmanian devils.)