In a bit of yuletide good news, a German study has cleared hospital staffroom coffee machines of spreading disease.
Along with doctors’ ties and even hospital bibles, coffee machines in hospitals have been considered breeding grounds for bacteria and various other nasties.
But despite being regularly touched by lots of bare hands, the potential of the coffee machines as a source of infection had not previously been investigated.
But writing in a Christmas issue of the BMJ, researchers from Cologne’s Institute for Clinical Microbiology and Hospital Hygiene said healthcare workers would be relieved to know that hospital coffee machines were not responsible for spreading bugs.
Last year, they swabbed 25 coffee makers ranging from fully automatic machines and capsule units through to espresso machines.
Seventeen were from staff break rooms and offices at German hospitals and another eight were in staff members’ homes.
All coffee makers had been in use for at least a year, and none was specially cleaned before sampling. There was no current disease outbreak at any of the locations at the time of sampling.
Each of the coffee makers was swabbed at five specified sites on the machine: the drip tray, the outlet, the buttons, the handle of the water tank, and the inside of the water tank.
Looking for the bad guys
The study focussed on the presence of the World Health Organization’s high priority “ESKAPE” pathogens — Enterococcus faecium, Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Acinetobacter baumannii, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Enterobacter species.
These bacteria pose an increasing threat because they are resistant to many antibiotics and can lead to fatal bloodstream or catheter-associated infections.
The researchers found three times more bacteria on hospital machines compared to home machines, but most of the bacteria detected are commonly found on the skin or gut and pose no threat to health.
Only a few medically relevant and no antibiotic-resistant pathogens were identified and the researchers say a general ban on coffee makers did not seem necessary.
Most detected species were commensals (bacteria that live on the skin or in the gut and pose no threat to health).
“To our great relief, despite their potential for pathogen origins in nosocomial outbreaks, a general ban on coffee makers doesn’t seem necessary,” the researchers said.
What’s more, the study had reportedly resulted in extensive cleaning measures — which wasn’t considered a bad thing.
The researchers said they would now turn their attention to tea drinking, to see if teapots, kettles and hot water spouts were breeding grounds for bacteria.