Ick! What’s living in your tie Doc?

Ever wonder if you are given a choice to seek physician advice for your health, which doctor will you prefer to meet? The one who dress casually in open neck shirts? The one who wears sneakers and jeans or rather the one in a white coat and wearing neckties? Most of us prefer the latter obviously. Could this be a right choice?

Unfortunately the answer is NOT, Researchers at New York Medical Center of Queens recently reported interesting findings about neckties at the meeting of the American Society of Microbiology.

Earlier studies have found bacteria on everything from doctors' stethoscopes, pagers, cell phones, and even pens. Following those finding Doctors are aware and know how to clean those items frequently. Shirts and white lab coats are washed more frequent, sometimes as often as every time they worn. But how often do they clean the tie, do they realize that neckties might carry germs as well?

"Most people don't clean or wash the tie that every time they wear it," told one of the researchers, Steve Nurkin. "You come home and throw the tie on your tie rack and a week or so later, you wear it again. It's rarely clean."

Neckties worn by doctors can and do carry dangerous pathogens which means a bedside visit by a well-dressed physician could be hazardous to your health.

Doctors may wash their hands, some more than others, but often adjust and straighten their neckties after they've washed their hands. While examining patients, they might lean over, and their neckties would swing and touches the bedding or brushes against patients’ skin during examinations, and they get sneezed on and coughed on by patients, spreading bugs and bacteria around from one patient to another. Each encounter might leave microbes on those strips of fabric.
The study compared the ties of 42 male medical staffs which include physicians, physician assistants and medical students with those of 10 security guards.

The study shows 20 out of 42 ties (47%) worn by medical staffs were infected with a non-pathogenic Alcaligenes faecalis bacteria and seven ties infected by organisms which pose a threat to the elderly or others weakened by illness or medication, including Pseudomonas aeruginosa, , Acinetobacter baumannii, Alcaligenes faecalis, Pantoea agglomerans (which turned up on three ties) and Klebsiella pneumoniae which cause a life threathening pneumonia and toxic shock.
Staphylococcus aureus, five gram-negative bacteria that is often associated with food-poisoning, was found in 33% of neckties (12 ties) worn by medical staff, but only one of the neckties worn by security guards.

''While there is no direct evidence to implicate neckties in the transmission of infection to patients, the link between contaminated necktie and the potential for transmission must be considered,'' says Nurkin.

He also said the study was meant to raise awareness of a potential risk and help provide better quality care.

So should doctors stop wearing a necktie and toss away their ties? Well maybe they should. For sure, they certainly need to pay more attention to their hygiene considering about 5 to 10 percent of all hospital patients acquiring an infection in the hospital where they receive treatment!