Abstract
Pre-hospital emergency care is a healthcare delivery service to victims of illnesses or accidents with a wide variety of health profiles. Ambulances may be a source of pathogenic microorganisms if not sanitized properly. Considering this, the present study aimed to evaluate the bacterial community present in different equipment and surfaces from ambulances used on pre-hospital care and verify the antibiotic resistance profile of the isolates. For that, three ambulances were chosen in unannounced visits, and eight sampling points were selected: wall inside the vehicle, cervical collar, spinal boards, bedsheets, masks, earplugs, head blocks and steering wheels. Pathogenic bacteria were isolated, identified and submitted to antimicrobial assays. A total of 144 samples were collected, and 33 different bacteria species were isolated. Among them, pathogenic genera Staphylococcus, Acinetobacter, Listeria and Ewingella. Staphylococcus, Acinetobacter, Listeria presented strains resistant to oxacilin, isolated from earplugs, spinal boards and masks which are in frequent contact with patients and rescuers. The results highlight the presence of pathogenic bacteria on surfaces and equipment that had been cleaned and deemed free of contagion.
Highlights
Pre-hospital emergency care is a coordinated and timely delivery of healthcare services to victims of illnesses or accidents (Hudson et al, 2017)
Considering the lack of research on these services, the present study aims to evaluate the bacterial community present in different equipments and surfaces from emergency ambulances ready for service used on pre-hospital care and verify the antimicrobial resistance profiles of the isolates of clinical importance
The present study evaluated the bacterial community present in ambulances, and the antibiotic resistance profile from the isolates of clinical importance
Summary
Pre-hospital emergency care is a coordinated and timely delivery of healthcare services to victims of illnesses or accidents (Hudson et al, 2017). Patients transported to hospitals or other health facilities by this system may have infections; after each run, ambulances must be cleaned and decontaminated to be ready for its use (Sheahan et al, 2019). The relevance of this cleaning and decontamination process lies in the fact that uncleaned ambulances can be a source of pathogenic organisms such as influenza virus, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), coronavirus, meningococcal meningitis, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), Mycobacterium tuberculosis, and vancomycin-resistant enterococci (Kampf et al, 2020; Miramonti et al, 2013). Infection control of pre-hospital emergency care services has not yet been recognized as an essential part of public health (Noh et al, 2011), which could become a critical problem during a pandemic event
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