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Standards and recommandations for hospital environmental hygiene Volume 58, issue 4, Juillet - Août 2000

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Laboratoire de microbiologie et d’hygiène hospitalière, Groupe hospitalier du Havre, BP 24, 76083 Le Havre cedex

The hospital laboratory has important responsibilities in the survey, control and prevention of nosocomial infections. Contamination of environment (surfaces, air, liquids) has been implicated in nosocomial infections. It is essential to develop a monitoring system for biocontamination control in the controlled environment areas. Classification of zones at risk (low, medium, high and very high risk) should be performed according to relevant guidelines or regulations where these exist. According to the classification of the zone at risk appropriate levels of biocontamination will be assigned. Standards for acceptable levels of microbiologic contamination will be suggested because no uniform agreement have been achieved because of the lack of correlation between these levels and occurrence of clinical infection.