Neckties can carry bacteria, especially when a doctor is wearing one, and that might be a problem in hospitals as doctors move from patient to patient. That's the news from this week's meeting of the American Society of Microbiology in New Orleans.
advertisement
E-mail your comments or suggestions to Josh Fischman: pulse@usnews.com
Hospital-acquired infections are an ongoing problem for patients, which is why doctors and nurses are supposed to wash their hands after leaving a patient's room. But neckwear may be another source of infectious disease, according to researchers at the New York Hospital of Queens. They looked at ties worn by doctors, med students, and physician assistants, and compared them with ties worn by hospital security personnel. Nearly half of the ties worn by medical staff harbored potential disease-causing bacteria; the rate among security staff was one eighth as high. As medical staff lean over patients' beds and ties brush bedsheets, the neckwear acts like a dirty rag, soaking up bacteria.
The researchers didn't examine whether the ties actually transmitted disease to patients. But the potential is clearly there, says Steven Nurkin, one of the investigators. "Studies such as this remind us of what we may bring to our patients' bedsides," he says. These studies also suggest that the only thing hanging around a doctor's neck should be a stethoscope.
