Bacterial contamination in milk kitchens in pediatric hospitals in Salvador, Brazil.

Milk may represent an important source of infectious agents to hospitalized pediatric patients. To describe the bacterial microflora isolated from the hands, stools, pharynx of all workers at milk kitchens in pediatric hospitals in the city of Salvador, Brazil, as well as in the formulas prepared by them, we carried out this cross-sectional study with all 91 workers from the 20 milk kitchens of all the public and private hospitals in Salvador, Brazil. Hand and pharynx swabs and stool samples were collected from all workers, as well as samples of the milk and formulas delivered by the kitchens.