Hands-free taps harbour more germs

Hands-free electronic taps, which automatically dispense water, harbour more germs than old fashioned manual ones, a US hospital study has found.

“Newer is not necessarily better when it comes to infection control in hospitals, especially when it comes to warding off potential hazards from water-borne bacteria, such as Legionella species,” said Dr Lisa Maragakis, a specialist in infectious diseases, at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore.

In the past decade, many hospitals in the United States switched from ordinary manual taps to the hands-free electronic versions. The aim was to prevent the spread of germs by people touching tap handles with their dirty hands.

However, researchers compared bacterial growth in both types of taps at the hospital, and found Legionella growing in 50 per cent of water samples from the hands-free taps compared with only 15 per cent from the manual ones.

The electronic taps also had twice as many bacteria of any kind compared to the manual taps at the hospital.

The researchers say that the public should not be unduly alarmed by the findings.

Legionella bacteria rarely cause illness in people with healthy immune systems. However, the germs can more easily cause infections in hospital patients with weakened immune systems, such as those undergoing cancer chemotherapy, people with HIV or those who have had an organ transplant.

Although the specific reason for the higher bacterial growth in the hands-free taps is still not clear, the researchers suspect the complex mechanical components found in these types of taps simply offer a greater surface area for bacteria to become trapped and grow.

The hospital is now in the process of removing the modern hands-free taps and replacing them with old-fashioned manual ones.

The Johns Hopkins researchers presented their findings at the annual meeting of the Society for Health Care Epidemiology in Dallas.

This article was published on Tue 5 April 2011