Microbial contamination of a disinfectant-soaked unwoven cleaning cloth

In December 2009, a 76-year-old male patient developed pneumonia due to Burkholderia cepacia whilst in an intensive care unit at a Japanese university hospital. During the subsequent environmental investigation to find the source, B.?cepacia with an identical DNA type was found in his denture storage solution. Open packets of unwoven rayon cloths soaked in 0.2% alkyldiaminoethylglycine hydrochloride, used for environmental cleaning, were shown to be contaminated with B.?cepacia, Alcaligenes xylosoxidans, Pseudomonas fluorescens and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. B.?cepacia of a different DNA type was found in five of 42 samples from sealed packets of cloths.