Carbapenemase-bearing Klebsiella spp. in sink drains: investigation into the potential advantage of copper pipes

Sink drains have long been known to harbour pathogenic bacteria and efforts such as heated sink traps have been made to control them. Sink outlet pipes have been implicated in outbreaks of infection by multi-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae. To investigate whether a change to copper pipes might prevent cross-infection, sections of standard sink outlet pipe were left in containers of water to which multi-resistant human strains of K. pneumoniae had been added. Bacterial counts from the water of containers to which copper pipe had been added were lower than those from containers to which PVC (polyvinyl chloride) pipe had been added.