NHS sinks contain multi-drug resistant bacteria

Research suggests that vulnerable patients risk being exposed to multi-drug resistant bacteria, which are to be living in hospital sink drainpipes.

Published in the Applied and Environmental Microbiology journal, researchers from the University of Virginia carried out a review of studies to highlight the scale of the problem of bacteria colonising hospital sinks and how it was on the increase.

The study involved the researchers reviewing more than 32 papers on the spread of bacteria resistant to the antibiotic carbapenem via sinks, and then building five identical sinks in their lab, modelling them on the most common intensive care unit sink in the university’s hospital in Charlottesville.

The researchers used the bacteria Escherichia coli (E. coli), and found that the bacteria colonised the elbows of the drain pipes, before growing slowly towards the sink strainers at the rate of roughly one inch per day - therefore taking a week for the colonies to reach the sink strainers. This then made it possible for the bacteria to spread around the sink and on the counters, bringing it into possible contact with patients.

Study author Dr Amy Mathers, associate professor of medicine and pathology, said: “We wanted to better understand how transmission occurs, so that the numbers of these infections could be reduced. Our study demonstrates that bacterial spread from drainpipes to patients occurs via a staged mode of transmission.

“This type of foundational research is needed to understand how these bacteria are transmitted so that we can develop and test potential intervention strategies that can be used to prevent further spread.”