Clinical, therapeutic ball pits commonly used by physical therapists to provide sensory
stimulation to children were investigated for microbial colonization. Due to the permissive
and hospitable environment provided by these ball pits, microorganisms can accumulate
to levels that increase the ease of transmission toexposed individuals. Our study
found considerable microbial colonization in ball pits located in clinical settings,
including 8 opportunistic pathogenic bacteria and 1 opportunistic pathogenic yeast.
Key Words
To read this article in full you will need to make a payment
Purchase one-time access:
Academic & Personal: 24 hour online accessCorporate R&D Professionals: 24 hour online accessOne-time access price info
- For academic or personal research use, select 'Academic and Personal'
- For corporate R&D use, select 'Corporate R&D Professionals'
Subscribe:
Subscribe to American Journal of Infection ControlAlready a print subscriber? Claim online access
Already an online subscriber? Sign in
Register: Create an account
Institutional Access: Sign in to ScienceDirect
References
- Are ball pits the playground for potentially harmful bacteria?.Pediatr Nurs. 1999; 25: 151-155
- Enterococcus faecalis tropism for the kidneys in the urinary tract of C57BL/6J mice.Infect Immun. 2005; 73: 2461-2468
- Microbiological and molecular characterization of Staphylococcus hominis isolates from blood.PLoS One. 2013; 8: e61161
- Isolation and characterisation of sialidase from a strain of Streptococcus oralis.J Med Microbiol. 2000; 49: 235-244
- Clinical and microbiological characteristics of bacteremia caused by Acinetobacter lwoffii.Eur JClin Microbiol Infect Dis. 2000; 19: 501-505
- Sepsis caused by Raoultella terrigena.JRSM Short Rep. 2011; 2: 49
- Ocular infection caused by Psychrobacter immobilis acquired in the hospital.J Clin Microbiol. 1990; 28: 400-401
- Klebsiella variicola is a frequent cause of bloodstream infection in the Stockholm area, and associated with higher mortality compared to K. pneumoniae.PLoS One. 2014; 9: 1-21
- Mycobacterium novocastrense sp. nov., a rapidly growing photochromogenic mycobacterium.Int J Syst Bacteriol. 1997; 47: 1205-1207
- Epidemiology of Rhodotorula: an emerging pathogen.Interdiscip Perspect Infect Dis. 2012; 2012 (465717)
Article Info
Publication History
Published online: November 22, 2018
Footnotes
Funding/support: Funding was provided by a University of North Georgia Presidential Innovation Award (to A. Robinson and D.B. in 2016), the University of North Georgia Department of Physical Therapy, and the University of North Georgia Department of Biology.
Conflicts of interest: None to report.
Identification
Copyright
© 2018 Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
