The Legionella bacteria are the agents of Legionnaires' disease and other infectious diseases that occur frequently in hospitals. In 50 percent of water samples from electronic faucets, the researchers discovered by Lisa Maragakis, a specialist in infectious diseases at John Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, such bacteria.
In the manually operated valves only 15 percent of the samples were contaminated. The ones also loaded in conventional taps per sample, on average, demonstrated significantly fewer of these bacteria. For healthy people, the bacteria were not harmful deposits, said the doctor. However, for hospital patients with weakened immune systems, this poses a real risk of infection.
Back to the hotel tradition
The researchers had water service or examined the water of 20 modern and traditional taps. As a result, the automatic valves in the hospital again showed positive to the presence of the bacteria. These taps had been installed about a decade ago in the teaching hospital of Johns Hopkins – these were installed to lessen the risk of infection by bacteria and also to reduce water consumption - as in many other hospitals in the United States. Also in the new buildings planned, they have pushed for the re-installation again traditional devices rather than electronic taps.
Inadequate disinfection
About the cause of elevated bacteria occurrence, the authors of the study so far can only speculate. They suspect that the bacteria garnered from the electronic faucets have additional space on which they can adhere and proliferate.
Moreover, the standard methods of the hospital for water cleanup are not sufficient to disinfect the complex electronic components. The researchers now want to work with the producers because the faucets are being cleaned ineffectively.
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