Frequency of contamination of single-patient-use nebulizers over time.

Adult hospitalized patients with cystic fibrosis commonly receive nebulized medications. For single-patient-use nebulizers that are cleaned after each use, there is infrequent nebulizer contamination (0%-11%) with only low numbers of epidemiologically important pathogens (less than 100 colony-forming units), and this contamination is similar after 24, 48, and 72 hours of use.