Effect that an educational program for cystic fibrosis patients and caregivers has on the contamination of home nebulizers.

Objective: To describe the pathogens found in home nebulizers and in respiratory samples of cystic fibrosis (CF) patients, and to evaluate the effect that a standardized instruction regarding cleaning and disinfection of nebulizers has on the frequency of nebulizer contamination.

Methods: We included 40 CF patients (22 males), all of whom used the same model of nebulizer. The median patient age was 11.