TRSA announced in late October that a recent study published in Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology painted an unnecessarily alarming picture regarding the risk of C. difficile contamination from hospital linens and potential infectious outbreaks.

The study, titled From ward to washer: The survival of Clostridium difficile spores on hospital bed sheets through a commercial UK NHS healthcare laundry process concludes that “processing infected linen in commercial washer/extractor cycles could disseminate low levels of C. difficile spores and may be contributing to sporadic outbreaks of C. difficile infection (CDI).”

“Therefore, even in the study’s assessment, the findings are conditional,” said ...