Attempts to control clothes-borne infection in a burn unit, 3. An open-roofed plastic isolator or plastic aprons to prevent contact transfer of bacteria

Abstract

An open-roofed plastic isolator was built in a single patient isolation room in a burn unit. It was designed to prevent contact contamination only, as this had been shown to be the important route of cross-colonization in the unit. To exclude any possible effect on airborne transfer of bacteria, the isolator was first examined by means of an airborne particle tracer of the same size as bacteria-carrying particles. Such experiments indicated that the isolator might prevent some transfer out of but not into the isolator. This was not confirmed in simulated nursing experiments nor in a patient study, where the air counts of bacteria were practically the same inside and outside the isolator wall. Two patients only were nursed in the isolator. Both patients acquired exogenous colonizations from other patients, one with Ps. aeruginosa and the other with S. aureus. Nursing in the isolator was difficult and staff-demanding. In simulated nursing experiments, plastic aprons and gauntlets as the only protective measures against contact contamination gave as much protection to a mock patient as did the isolator. S. aureus were released from nurses' clothes more easily during work with the isolator than in open nursing with aprons and gauntlets. In conclusion, the isolator did not seem to be a realistic alternative to impermeable clothes such as plastic aprons as a means of preventing clothes-borne cross-contamination between burn patients.