Laxed Sanitation Practices Promote Variable Pathogenic Bacterial Colonies

Travel is one of the mainstays of modern life, and for a significant number of people, traveling is a necessity for their professional lives. The relative frequency and length of these travels necessitate visits to many popular hotel chains and other lodging establishments. Increasingly, consumer traffic and lax cleaning practices have contributed to a trend in the noticeable decline of the cleanliness and sanitation of hotel rooms worldwide. Unsurprisingly, the lack of proper sanitation practices has also lead to an uptick in the number of pathogenic bacteria found in these hotel rooms [3].

Although the issue of high bacterial loads in hotels is not new by any stretch, new studies have identified the most common pathogenic species in these hotels and by extension have further isolated the risks these microbes pose to consumers. In these studies, one of the main observations was that bacterial load in hotels varied drastically from location to location [1]. Specifically, bathroom counters were found to be some of the most variable areas in hotels regarding bacterial load; on average 3-star hotels had a bacterial load of 320,007 colony-forming units (CFU) per square inch [2,3]. Comparatively speaking, 4-star hotels had an average of 1,011,670 CFU's per square inch; the difference between these two hotel types is striking, however, even more, striking is that the average household bathroom counter averages 452 CFU's [2]. To put this into context, 1 CFU can hold many millions of individual bacterial cells each with the capacity to make a consumer ill.

Additionally, when the researchers began identifying the types of microbes present in these hotel environments several pathogenic microbial strains were shown to be common.The most predominant bacterial strains found in the study were Bacillus spp and cocci spp bacteria [2]. When looking at both species, several pathogenic variants like Bacillus Cereus and Bacillus Circulans were found [3]. Bacillus Cereus alone is notorious for causing hundreds of thousands of hospitalizations and deaths worldwide as it is a major cause of abscess infections, septicemia, and food poisoning [2,3]. In conjunction Cocci bacteria are responsible for diseases like pneumonia, meningitis, food poisoning and strep throat; significantly increases the risk of illness from these hotels [2,3].

Chronically high bacterial loads coupled with a bacterial population teaming with pathogenic microbes pose a greater risk of illness to consumers booking a stay at many traditional hotel chains [1]. Though many of these companies have implemented sterility practices in light of these new studies, however, consumers should always be vigilant to prevent unintended illness. Here at Sure-BioChem Laboratories, we recommend traveling with sanitation wipes to ensure that surfaces are sterile. Areas of interest that consumers should be wary of include, door handles, surfaces like counters, hair dryers, and remote controls. For more information regarding fecal coliform bacteria, bioburden testing and other microbial tests contact Sure-BioChem at 888-398-7247 to get your consultation today.

References

1. Logan, Niall A., and Paul De Vos. "Bacillus."Bergey's Manual of Systematics of Archaea and Bacteria(2015).

2. Tuladhar, Era, et al. "Residual viral and bacterial contamination of surfaces after cleaning and disinfection."Applied and environmental microbiology 78.21 (2012): 7769-7775.

3. Zemke, Dina Marie V., et al. "Hotel cleanliness: will guests pay for enhanced disinfection?."International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management27.4 (2015): 690-710.