Incidence of Staphylococcus Aureus on Fomentation Covers
type: CreativeWork
description: This study was to ascertain whether fomentation covers were contaminated with Staphylococcus aureus prior to being placed on a patient receiving a hydrotherapy treatment. From a review of literature on the subject of the Staphylococcus aureus organism and from studies of hospital-acquired staphylococcal infection it appeared that: (1) researches had used various techniques for making cultures from fabrics, (2) the Staphylococcus aureus cultures may react in varying ways to the laboratory tests making the classification somewhat difficult, (3) the problem of hospital-acquired staphylococcal cross-infection was present, (4) the role played by the environment in hospital-acquired infections was controversial, and (5) the amount of contract transmission of organisms depends partly on the degree of surface contamination and moisture on the skin. The descriptive survey was the method used in this study. Following a pilot study conducted to compare two methods for obtaining cultures from fomentation covers, the triple-contact-plate method was chosen to collect cultures at three selected hospitals. In the microbiology laboratory the classifying characteristics noted for the gram-positive cocci cultures were (1) pigmentation varying from pale to deep yellow or gold, (2) mannitol fermentation, (3) clear zone hemolysis around individual colonies growing on sheep blood agar, and (4) coagulation of plasma. When tabulated the data received out of the 300 cultures from the fomentation covers, thirty-eight were gram-positive staphylococci. Of these thirty-eight cultures, twelve, or 4 percent of 300 cultures, were classified as Staphylococcus epidermidis. The remaining twenty-six cultures, or 9 percent of all the cultures, were classified according to their single or multiple characteristics as six "definite" (three and four characteristics), seventeen "possible" (two characteristics) and three "questionable" (one characteristic) Staphylococcus aureus were considered as potential pa…
abstract: This study was to ascertain whether fomentation covers were contaminated with Staphylococcus aureus prior to being placed on a patient receiving a hydrotherapy treatment. From a review of literature on the subject of the Staphylococcus aureus organism and from studies of hospital-acquired staphylococcal infection it appeared that: (1) researches had used various techniques for making cultures from fabrics, (2) the Staphylococcus aureus cultures may react in varying ways to the laboratory tests making the classification somewhat difficult, (3) the problem of hospital-acquired staphylococcal cross-infection was present, (4) the role played by the environment in hospital-acquired infections was controversial, and (5) the amount of contract transmission of organisms depends partly on the degree of surface contamination and moisture on the skin. The descriptive survey was the method used in this study. Following a pilot study conducted to compare two methods for obtaining cultures from fomentation covers, the triple-contact-plate method was chosen to collect cultures at three selected hospitals. In the microbiology laboratory the classifying characteristics noted for the gram-positive cocci cultures were (1) pigmentation varying from pale to deep yellow or gold, (2) mannitol fermentation, (3) clear zone hemolysis around individual colonies growing on sheep blood agar, and (4) coagulation of plasma. When tabulated the data received out of the 300 cultures from the fomentation covers, thirty-eight were gram-positive staphylococci. Of these thirty-eight cultures, twelve, or 4 percent of 300 cultures, were classified as Staphylococcus epidermidis. The remaining twenty-six cultures, or 9 percent of all the cultures, were classified according to their single or multiple characteristics as six "definite" (three and four characteristics), seventeen "possible" (two characteristics) and three "questionable" (one characteristic) Staphylococcus aureus were considered as potential pa…
author: McDaniel, Yvonne Badgley
language: English
keywords: Laboratory and Basic Science Research, Nursing, Occupational and Environmental Health Nursing, Occupational Health and Industrial Hygiene, Staphylococcus aureus; Hydrotherapy
date published: 1965-07-01T07:00:00Z
date modified: 2026-07-24T02:53:44Z
provider: Loma Linda University
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: Loma Linda University