Abstract:Background: It is well established that stethoscopes harbor pathogenic bacteria species. Within hospital settings, these pathogens can be rapidly transmitted from room to room and can cause harm in vulnerable populations. The current literature demonstrates that disinfecting stethoscopes with isopropanol kills 99% of all bacteria. However, in practice this rarely occurs and disinfection is subject to user error. We assessed the efficacy of ultraviolet germicidal irradiation (UV-C) at decontaminating stethoscop… Show more
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