Introduction of Probiotic-Based Sanitation in the Emergency Ward of a Children’s Hospital During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Open accessAbstract
Background: Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) represents a major threat to public health, especially in the hospital environment, and the massive use of disinfectants to prevent COVID-19 transmission might intensify this risk, possibly leading to future AMR pandemics. However, the control of microbial contamination is crucial in hospitals, since hospital microbiomes can cause healthcare-associated infections (HAIs), which are particularly frequent and severe in pediatric wards due to children having high susceptibility. Aim: We have previously reported that probiotic-based sanitation (PCHS) could stably decrease pathogens and their AMR in the hospital environment, reduce associated HAIs in adult hospitals, and inactivate enveloped viruses. Here, we aimed to test the effect of PCHS in the emergency room (ER) of a children's hospital during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: Conventional chemical disinfection was replaced by PCHS for 2 months during routine ER sanitation; the level of environmental bioburden was characterized before and at 2, 4, and 9 weeks after the introduction of PCHS. Microbial contamination was monitored simultaneously by conventional culture-based CFU count and molecular assays, including 16S rRNA NGS for bacteriome characterization and microarrays for the assessment of the resistome of the contaminating population. The presence of SARS-CoV-2 was also monitored by PCR. Results and conclusions: < 0.01). The effects were reversed when reintroducing chemical disinfection, which counteracted the action of the PCHS. SARS-CoV-2 was not detectable in both the pre-PCHS and PCHS periods. As the control of microbial contamination is a major issue, especially during pandemic emergencies, collected data suggest that PCHS may be successfully used to control virus spread without simultaneous worsening of the AMR concern.
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PCHS usage during the COVID-19 pandemic showed significant effectiveness against SARS-CoV-2 in both sanitary and non-sanitary environments.
“its usage was tested during the COVID-19 pandemic, showing significant effectiveness against SARS-CoV-2 in both sanitary and non-sanitary environments [20, 36].”
From Profiling the resistome and virulome of Bacillus strains used for probiotic-based sanitation: a multicenter WGS analysis (2025) · cites this paper as [36]
The Methods describe PCHS use in a children’s hospital emergency ward during the pandemic. The Results report a significant reduction in surface pathogens, but the SARS-CoV-2 analysis found no positive samples either before or after PCHS introduction, so this study does not demonstrate effectiveness against SARS-CoV-2. It did not study non-sanitary environments. (LLM, conf=0.90)
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- Authors
- Soffritti, I., D'Accolti, M., Cason, C., Lanzoni, L., Bisi, M., Volta, A., Campisciano, G., Mazzacane, S., Bini, F., Mazziga, E., Toscani, P., Caselli, E., & Comar, M.
- Affiliations
- University of Ferrara (IT)
- IRCCS Materno Infantile Burlo Garofolo (IT)
- University of Trieste (IT)
- Corresponding author
- Caselli, Elisabetta
- Venue
- Infection and Drug Resistance
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2022-03
- Volume
- Volume 15
- Pages
- 1399-1410
- ISSN
- 1178-6973 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC8978905
- OpenAlex
- W4221132041
- Cited by
- 30
- References
- 31
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 10 · 2022: 6
- FWCI
- 3.42
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Infection and Drug Resistance (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (acceptedVersion)
- Institutional Research Information System University of Ferrara (University of Ferrara) (acceptedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- ArTS Archivio della ricerca di Trieste (University of Trieste https://www.units.it/) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- Dove Medical Press (Taylor and Francis Group) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Infectious Diseases › Infection Control in Healthcare
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Pulmonary and Respiratory Medicine › Infection Control and Ventilation
- Physical Sciences › Chemistry › Organic Chemistry › Antimicrobial agents and applications
- Keywords
- antimicrobial resistance, hospital environment, emergency department, children's hospitals, COVID-19 pandemic, SARS-CoV-2, nosocomial infections, chemical disinfection, resistome, hospital microbiome, microbial contamination control
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