Microbial BLSA contamination an important infection control challenge.
For this reason, knowledge of the microbiological status and appropriate cleaning of BLSAS is a priority.
However, guidelines do not recommend microbiologic studies, of during outbreaks linked to environmental agents,because their excessive cost in relation the information provided.
Cultures performed in the current study do not allow a direct comparison between different BLSAs, but provide affordable evaluations of surface bacterial loads that were higher than desirable but similar to those reported from prehospital emergency environment studies.
Although BLSA surfaces are considered noncritical by Spaulding classification, detection of bacteria susceptible to common disinfectants in some BLSAs reflects improper cleaning of the BLSAs and/or poor adherence to hand hygiene and other standard precautions by ambulance
personnel.