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Updated: Jul 18, 2026

Automated Hospital Room Disinfection Utilizing a Novel Aerosolized Hydrogen Peroxide Microdroplet Disbursing Technology
Published on: February 24, 2026
Where should one search when confronted with outbreaks of nosocomial infection?
Petra Gastmeier1, Sabine Stamm-Balderjahn, Sonja Hansen
1Institute for Medical Microbiology and Hospital Epidemiology, Medical School Hannover, Hannover, Germany.
Abstract:
The outbreak database (http://www.outbreak-database.com), containing 1561 records of nosocomial outbreaks published in the medical literature in a systematic format, was used to identify the most frequent outbreak sources for the entire database as well as for specific outbreak pathogens. Overall, in 37.1%, no source was identified. The main sources identified were index patients (40.3%), followed by equipment and devices (21.1%), environment (19.8%), and personnel (15.8%).
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