Hospital water point-of-use filtration: A complementary strategy to reduce the risk of nosocomial infection

Cholera, hepatitis and typhoid are well-recognized water-borne illnesses that take the lives of many every year in areas of uncontrollable flood, but far less attention is afforded to the allegedly safe potable water in affluent nations and the presumed healthful quality of water in communities and hospitals. Recent literature, however, points to increasing awareness of serious clinical sequelae particularly experienced by immunocompromised patients at high risk for disease and death from exposure to water-borne microbes in hospitals. This review reflects the literature indicting hospital water as an important source for nosocomial infections, examines patient populations at greatest risk, uncovers examples of failures in remedial water treatment methods and the reasons for them, and introduces point-of-use water filtration as a practical alternative or complementary component of an infection control strategy that may reduce the risk of nosocomial infections.