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
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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.
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Copyright
© 2018 Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.