Table 2.

Reported faucets and drains contamination by Pseudomonas aeruginosa in healthcare facilities

	Location	No sites	No samples	Type of device	% Samples positives	Sample volume (mL)	Context (duration)	Notes	Reference
Manual faucets	Surgical ICU (16 beds)	6	72	Faucets	68	100	Prospective study (30 weeks)	Every 2 weeks over 7 months, individual faucets harbored their clones over prolonged periods of time, despite cleaning and autoclaving aerator	Trautmann et al. (2001)
	Surgical ICU (17 beds) +12 peripheral wards	n.s.a	127	Faucets	58	100	Prospective study (40 weeks)	Tap aerators were removed and autoclaved every 2 weeks prior to start of study. Hot and cold water samples from the central system were negative	Reuter et al. (2002)
		5	132
	ICUs (870 beds hospital)	16	216	Faucets and mixing valve	9.7	Swabs	Prospective study (52 weeks)	Hot–cold water mixing chamber was swabbed at end of study. Percent positivity ranged from 1.6 to 18.8	Blanc et al. (2004)
			64	Faucets	0	100
	Surgical and medical ICU (30 beds)	28	224	Faucets	4.5	150	Prospective study (8 weeks)	Weekly sampling	Cholley et al. (2008)
	Medical–surgical ICU (400 beds)	n.s.	53	Sink faucets and shower heads	3.8	n.s.	Outbreak —36 patients, new building	No detection in source water (n = 39) or on equipment tested (n = 27)	Hota et al. (2009)
	Surgical pediatric unit (59 beds)	118	214	Faucets	15	50	Outbreak, 14 urinary tract infections, 10‐year‐old taps	Water sampled after a flush of few seconds. None found in 4 samples from main water pipes. 18% positivity in surgical ICU. Resolution through replacement of taps and hygiene measures	Ferroni et al. (1998)
		98	98	Showers and faucet nozzle	7	Swab
	Long stay care unit (22 beds)	18	91	Faucets	68	100	Long‐term study (2 years)	Water sampled after 1 min flush. 6 of the 14 rooms permanently colonized despite descaling and aerators changed 8 months before end of study. Outdoor tap water never positive	Lavenir et al. (2008)
		18	53	Faucet nozzle	74	Swab
	Hospital care unit	8	8	Faucets	12.5	n.d.	Higher P. aeruginosa bacteriemiasthan usual	Corrective measures: 5 min flush before use and POU filtration	Vianelli et al. (2006)
		23	23	Faucets, shower heads	48	Swab
	ICU (16 beds)	39	484	Faucets in patient's room	11.4	250 + swab	Prospective study (26 weeks)	After 11 weeks into the study, aerators removed and disinfected every 2 weeks, tapsdisinfected with chlorine. Samples still positive after	Rogues et al. (2007)
			189	Faucets outside rooms	5.3
Electronic and Manual Faucets	Hospital (450 beds)	10	10	Manual faucets	0	500	Monitoring study after replacement	Aerators not removed before sampling. Central pipe system negative. No contamination detected prior to magnetic valve for electronic faucet without temperature control	Halabi et al. (2001)
		23	23	efaucetsb without T° control	74
		15	15	efaucets with T° control	7
	Neonatal ICU (25 beds in 1200 beds hospital)	9	9	efaucets	100	Swab + water	Outbreak (12 patients) after taps replacement	Samples from faucet filter (swab) and from faucet water. None of the manual faucets sampled were contaminated	Yapicioglu et al. (2011)
	Hospital Kitchen (1333 beds hospital)	27	144	efaucets	7.6	500	Observation after renovations (26 weeks)	No P. aeruginosa detected after chlorination; total bacterial still too high despite changing the aerator	Chaberny and Gastmeier (2004)
	Hospital (90 rooms)	n.s.	31	efaucets	100	100	Control before opening new department	All faucets and central pipes positive for P. aeruginosa on reopening. No detection in central system and manual faucets after chlorination, efaucets still positive	Van der Mee‐Marquet et al. (2005)
			33	central pipe/manual faucets	0
	Hematology ward	3	21	efaucets	90	n.s.	Control before reopening after renovations	Manual faucets negative. Chlorination 15 min, six times not effective	Leprat et al. (2003)
	ICU (15 beds)	n.s.	10	Taps, water outlets, water supply	100	n.s.	Outbreak, 10 patients after renovations	Resolution through replacement of new sensor mixer tap systems with conventional mixer taps. No further detection of P. aeruginosa or cases	Durojaiye et al. (2011)
	Hematology and ICU wards (900 and 500 beds)	n.s.	92	efaucets with T° control	39	500	Study	Aerator removed, faucet nose disinfected with alcohol and flushed for 1 min prior to sampling. No contamination of incoming water to e‐faucets	Merrer et al. (2005)
			135	Manual faucets	1
	NICU (28 beds)	37	296	efaucets outside NICU	12.5	Swab	Outbreak (8 patients)	All swab samples were taken from the flow restrective devices	Ehrhardt et al. (2006)
		12	12	efaucets in NICU	71
		5	5	Manual faucets	0	Water
	Hospital (2168 beds)	36	18	efaucets	0	250	Study	Magnetic valves installed within __ 25 cm from water basin, minimizing volume at mitigated temperature	Assadian et al. (2002)
			18	Manual faucets	2.7
	ICU operating suite (491 beds) and Neonatalogy unit (430 beds)	19	304	Faucets	5.3	n.s.	Prospective study (52 weeks)	Sampling with aerator in place. Water from the main supply was negative for P. aeruginosa	Berthelot et al. (2006)
	Hospitals (405, 420, 80 and 450 beds)	90	90	Manual faucets	2	1000	Study	Sampling with aerator in place. Low positivity by culture. Enzymatic detection method had higher positivity: 14% for manual, 29% for foot operated and 16% for faucets	Charron et al. (2015)
		14	14	Foot operated faucets	14
		105	105	efaucets	5
Drains	Medical‐surgical ICU (12 beds)	11	66	Sink drains	100	Swab	Study (6 weeks)	56% of drains strains, high level of antibiotic resistance. For 2 of 5 infected patients, same strain as the one isolated in the drain	Levin et al. (1984)
	Medical‐surgical ICU (400 beds)	n.s.	213	Sink drains	12.2	Swab	Outbreak—36 patients, new building	Fluorescent marker showed drain splashed at least 1 m	Hota et al. (2009)
	Surgical and medical ICU (30 beds)	28	224	Sink drains	86.2	10	Study (8 weeks)	Water sampled in the U‐bend. Each room sampled every week. Drains in all rooms were colonized at least once. 5 of 28 rooms had permanent colonization	Cholley et al. (2008)
	Pediatric oncology (18 beds)	12	12	Sink drains	25	Swab	Outbreak—3 patients	Tap design caused errant jet in the drain creating aerosols. Resolution: installation of longer neck faucet, offset from the drain and installation of self‐cleaning drains. After 18 months, P. aeruginosa still detected in drains except for the new self‐cleaning drains and no new cases reported	Schneider et al. (2012)
		34	12		58	10
	Hospitals (405, 420, 80 and 450 beds)	210	210	Sink drains	51	Swab	Study	Sampling in 4 hospitals	Charron et al. (2015)
	Mixed infectious disease unit (11 beds)	34	76	Washing basin sinks	89.5	Swab	Study (4 weeks)	Demonstrated that aerosols from the drains were contaminating personnel's hands. Resolution through the use of a heating device on drains (70°C) to eliminatepresence of P. aeruginosa	Döring et al. (1991)
			52	Toilet sinks	46.2
			8	Shower and bathtube	100

^an.s. Not specified.

^befaucet is short for electronic faucet.