Reducing healthcare-associated infections incidence by a probiotic-based sanitation system: A multicentre, prospective, intervention study

Elisabetta Caselli; Silvio Brusaferro; Maddalena Coccagna; Luca Arnoldo; Filippo Berloco; Paola Antonioli; Rosanna Tarricone; Gabriele Pelissero; Silvano Nola; Vincenza La Fauci; Alessandro Conte; Lorenzo Tognon; Giovanni Villone; Nelso Trua; Sante Mazzacane; for the SAN-ICA Study Group

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0199616

Fig 3

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Surface contamination in the surveyed hospitals.

(A) Pathogen load on hospital surfaces, expressed as CFU/m². Six pathogens were measured by direct CFU counting on specific Rodac plates, as described in Methods (Staphylococcal spp., Enterobacteriaceae spp., Acinetobacter spp., Candida spp., Pseudomonas spp., Clostridium spp.). Graphed results represent the sum of the median values obtained for each measured pathogen. Median values (lower part of the box) and Q3 values (upper part of the box, representing the 75% percentile values) are shown for each hospital, and for pre-intervention (pre-PCHS) and intervention (PCHS) phases. Values reported for the external control hospital (Messina), correspond to those detected in the 1^st and 2^nd 6-month periods of the study. (B) Total bacterial load and PCHS-Bacilli count, respectively measured by a pan-bacterial qPCR (panB) and a specific qPCR for Bacillus genus (spo0A). Results are expressed as genome copy number per 100 ng of tested DNA. The median values ± SD of pre-PCHS and PCHS phases are shown. Values reported for the external control hospital (Messina), correspond to those detected in the 1^st and 2^nd 6-month periods of the study.