Reducing blood culture contaminations by use of hair nets and face masks

Abstract

We have read the article by Sanders et al. with great interest. We appreciate the authors for their stewardship to decrease blood culture contamination rate. We would like to address the etiological distribution before and after the addition of hair nets and masks in the study. We would expect oral streptococci to decrease proportionally by using masks, but this rate did not decrease (4.7% versus 6.3%). We think that if a control group was formed in which face masks and hair nets were not used during the intervention 2 and 3 phase, similar low contamination rates would have been obtained. Strict hand hygiene, proper use of gloves, proper skin antisepsis, and nonpalpation of the disinfected area are crucial to prevent contamination. In conclusion, skin contamination constitutes a significant proportion of false culture positivity rates and is still a major problem. (C) 2019 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.