Cockroaches (Ectobius vittiventris) in an Intensive Care Unit, Switzerland

摘要

To the Editor: Ectobius vit-tiventris (Costa) is a fi eld-dwelling cockroach and 1 of 4,000 cockroach species worldwide (1). We describe a cockroach infestation of an intensive care unit (ICU). Successful manage-ment required knowledge of the ecolo-gy of cockroaches and highlighted the need for species-level identifi cation to tailor control strategies.The University of Geneva Hospi-tals are a 2,200-bed tertiary healthcare center. The 18-bed medical ICU is lo-cated on the ground . oor next to an outdoor recreational area and admits ≈1,400 patients/year. Smoking inside hospital buildings by patients and healthcare workers (HCWs) is strictly prohibited. On August 25, 2006, ≈30 cockroaches were observed in the ICU hiding inside oxygen masks, moving around on the light panels below the ceilings, or dropping onto intubated patients during the night