Hospital develops anti-MRSA keyboard
A hospital in London has developed a computer keyboard that it claims could cut cases of MRSA by 10%. The flat keyboard is coated in silicone and is therefore easy to clean with alcohol wipes, according to the University College London Hospitals NHS Trust. It also has and automatic reminder light to prompt nurses to clean it.
'The numbers of keyboards isgoing to rise astronomically in the next few years,' said Dr Peter Wilson, the consultant microbiologist who came up with the idea for the keyboards. 'We're going for electronic patient records. That means that everything that used to be on the chart at the end of the bed will be now put into the keyboard.
'There is a risk that if transmission is occurring between patients via keyboards, this is going to be doubled, trebled, quadrupled in the near future.'
A study carried out at Chicago's Northwestern Memorial hospital in the US last year found that bacteria, including vancomycin-resistant enterococcus (VRE) and, MRSA could survive on and in keyboards for more than 24 hours, while and Pseudomonas aeruginosa survived for an hour or more. Meanwhile in Toronto one hospital had to throw away all its keyboards during an outbreak of VRE because it could not get them clean.
Cleaning with soap and water proved ineffective, and although a hospital-grade bactericide did the job, it had a long-term detrimental effect on the keyboards.
Another study carried out at the Department of Anesthesiology, Tokyo Women's Medical University, School of Medicine, in Tokyo, Japan, observed that anesthesiologists input their procedure, such as intubation, extubation, inserting peripheral vascular catheters or administrating drugs to computer with dirty gloves on.1
An examination of the keyboard and mouse indicated possible contamination. MRSA was found in three of the 10 keyboards in the operating theatre and on one of the 2 keyboards in the ICU.
The study therefore concluded that contamination of keyboard could be a cause of indirect-contact transmission. Anesthesiologists might transfer bacteria from the keyboard to the patients, and must therefore remove dirty gloves and carry out hand hygiene procedures after patient contact and before touching the keyboard.
'What we have to do is try and interrupt the transmission of MRSA, which is mainly by touch,' said Mark Enright, a leading researcher from Imperial College London. 'If we can stop transmission of MRSA and other organisms from keyboard touching that would help. It's obviously going to be a positive step.'
1. Tomoko Fukada, Hiroko Iwakiri, Makoto Ozaki, Anesthesiology 2006; 105: A948