Environmental and human health impact of contact precaution use for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus in Los Angeles County

Pamela S Lee; Kelsey OYong; Ami N Shah; Cassandra Thiel; Michelle LeBrun; Loren G Miller; Zachary Rubin

doi:10.1017/ice.2025.10338

Environmental and human health impact of contact precaution use for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus in Los Angeles County

Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol. 2025 Nov 7;47(1):1-3. doi: 10.1017/ice.2025.10338. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Pamela S Lee^{1

2

3}, Kelsey OYong⁴, Ami N Shah⁵, Cassandra Thiel^{6

7}, Michelle LeBrun⁸, Loren G Miller^{1

2

3}, Zachary Rubin^{3

4}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases, Harbor-UCLA-Medical Center, Torrance, CA, USA.
² Division of Infectious Diseases, The Lundquist Institute for Biomedical Innovation, Torrance, CA, USA.
³ Department of Medicine, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
⁴ Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
⁵ Division of Pediatric Surgery, Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, IL, USA.
⁶ Departments of Population Health and Ophthalmology, NYU Langone Health, New York, NY, USA.
⁷ Clinically Sustainable Consulting, Madison, WI, USA.
⁸ Division of Infectious Diseases, Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Center, Los Angeles, CA, USA.

Abstract

In LA County, contact precautions for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus require 7.3 million gowns annually generating 506 tons of plastic waste and 1.73 million kilograms of carbon dioxide equivalents, which cause the loss of 4.07 disability-adjusted life-years. Unintended consequences of gown use necessitates exploration of infection prevention alternatives.