• Kirsten A Goldhammer, David P Dooley, Eleanor Ayala, Wendy Zera, and Bonnie L Hill.
• Department of Medicine, Brooke Army Medical Center, Fort Sam Houston, TX, USA. kirsten.goldhammer@haw.tamc.amedd.army.mil
• Clin J Sport Med. 2006 Jan 1; 16 (1): 34-8.

ObjectiveTransmission of bacterial and viral pathogens is known to occur by hand contact with fomites. Exercise equipment in public facilities may serve as such fomites. It is not known whether equipment disinfection might reduce microorganism colonization. We performed studies to address these issues.DesignObservational study of bacterial and viral culture results from hand-contact surfaces of exercise equipment, pre-exercise and postexercise; prospective study of viral culture results before and after intervention with disinfection solution.SettingTwo fitness centers in a military community.InterventionOne week trial of twice-a-day equipment disinfection.Main Outcome MeasuresType and number of bacteria and type of viruses present on equipment before and after exercise; prevalence of viral culture positivity on equipment before and after intervention.ResultsBacterial cultures of body contact surfaces on equipment revealed benign bacterial species (coagulase-negative staphylococci, diphtheroids, and so forth) but no pathogenic bacteria whether obtained pre-exercise or postexercise, or whether from aerobic versus weight training equipment. Viral cultures revealed the presence of viruses (generally rhinoviruses) on 63 of 100 (63%) hand-contact surfaces of equipment. Weight equipment was significantly more often contaminated than aerobic equipment (73% vs. 51%; P = 0.026). Disinfection of equipment did not lower the prevalence of virus isolation (48% positive before cleaning; 86% positive after cleaning).ConclusionsThere is little risk of exposure to pathogenic bacteria on exercise equipment. Such equipment may commonly serve as fomites for the transmission of viruses. These data do not suggest that disinfection of exercise equipment will offer significant protective effects against virus exposure.

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