Bacterial contamination of probes and ultrasound devices in the city of Saint-Louis, Senegal

Ultrasonography is an imaging modality which uses ultrasounds generated by a probe placed on the skin or in a natural cavity. The objective of this work is to assess the prevalence of microbial contamination of ultrasonography devices in Saint-Louis. The ultrasonography facilities of public health structures have been sampled. Thus for the gel, the probes and their storage, some scovels have been used then soaked in a broth of culture and incubated at 37°C. Concerning the environment two cans of Muller Hinton agar-agar have been exposed in each ultrasonography room during one hour before being incubated. Five health institutions have been gathered. One notices: Out of twelve superficial probes examined, two are infected with Staphylococcus saprophyticus. No endocavity probe was contaminated. Two out of seventh storages of probes were contaminated with Citrobacter spp. Two out of seventh bottles of gel in current use were contaminated with Staphylococcus saprophyticus and Enterobacter spp, two keyboards and screens were contaminated with stumps of Enterobacter spp among which one BLSE and Pseudomonas spp, two out of 14 cans of agar were contaminated. Some bleach for the disinfection of echographs and hydro- alcoholic gel for hand antisepsis were available in all the sites.