More than skin deep: moisturizing body milk and Burkholderia cepacia

Amy E Irwin¹ and Connie Savor Price¹^,2

¹Division of Infectious Diseases, Denver Health and Hospital Authority, 777 Bannock Street, Denver, CO, 80238 USA

²University of Colorado School of Medicine, Campus Box C290, 4200 E. Ninth Ave., Denver, CO 80262 USA

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Critical Care 2008, 12:115doi:10.1186/cc6781


Published:	20 February 2008

See related research by Alvarez-Lerma et al., http://ccforum.com/content/12/1/R10

Abstract

Alvarez-Lerma and colleagues observed over an 18-day period that five critically ill patients admitted to a multidisciplinary 18-bed intensive care unit contracted Burkholderia cepacia from unopened containers of moisturizing body milk, calling into question the use in critical care settings of cosmetic products that do not guarantee sterilization during the manufacturing process. Is this the answer to the problem, however, or should the use of lotions in such settings be re-examined?