Evaluation of Two Procedures of Incubator's Decontamination in a NICU

Nosocomial infections are responsible for morbidity and mortality in hospitalized neonates. The environment of the neonates and especially the incubators can constitute the reservoir of pathogenic bacteria. That is why decontamination of incubators is a major step in the fight against nosocomial infections in NICUs.

The hypothesize is that the usual procedure of decontamination, based on antiseptic molecules, is not sufficient to eradicate all pathogenic bacteria from the incubators.

In this study the investigator's aim to assess the efficacy of the usual procedure of decontamination and to compare it with another procedure based on steam pulverization. Another objective will be to explore a possible contamination of the hands of the healthcare workers, that can be involved in the cycle of transmission of bacteria to neonates. Finally, clinical data about the neonates housed in the incubator will be retrieved from clinical reports, to identify the occurrence of sepsis and if so, to compare the bacteria involved in the sepsis and the bacteria present in the incubator.