Hospital Computer Keyboards May Spread Danger

WEDNESDAY, May 3 (HealthDay News) -- Computer users may not just have digital viruses to fear.

A new study finds that computer keyboards in busy hospitals or doctors' offices are rife with real-life bugs, including potentially dangerous bacteria that could be transmitted to patients via the hands of doctors and other computer-using staff.

Doctors, nurses and other health-care workers use computers for a number of tasks while seeing patients, including viewing test results and X-rays, or ordering laboratory tests.

"Using computers in this manner provides many advantages. However, it can also pose the risk of transmitting illness-causing bacteria from the computer keyboard to patients via the hands of their health-care provider," Dr. William A. Rutala, director of hospital epidemiology at the University of North Carolina Health Care System and a professor in the UNC School of Medicine in Chapel Hill, said in a prepared statement.

He and his colleagues collected samples from 25 computer keyboards at various locations inside UNC hospitals.

They found that each keyboard was infected with at least two types of bacteria. Every keyboard tested positive for coagulase-negative staphylococci (CoNS), a major cause of bloodstream infection in hospitalized patients. Thirteen other types of bacteria were also found on the keyboards.

The researchers also tested different types of disinfectant wipes to clean the keyboards: isopropyl alcohol wipes; CaviWipes; chlorine wipes; Clorox Disinfecting Wipes; Sani-Cloth Plus; Vesphene II SE wipes, and paper towels moistened with sterile water. All of them removed and/or inactivated at least 95 percent to 100 percent of the bacteria.

All computer keyboards in patient care areas should be routinely disinfected every day and whenever they are visibly soiled, the researchers said. If a keyboard cover is used, it should also be disinfected. Mobile computers used by different patients should be disinfected between patient uses.

The study appears in the April issue of Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology.