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There continues to be controversy concerning the role that medical uniforms may play in the spread of germs and infection. There are no definitive studies to prove the theory that doctors ties and long-sleeved shirts are reservoirs for pathogens including those that can lead to pneumonia or staph infections.
Many hospitals in Europe have adopted practices designed to limit this spread of germs. One of these practices is the requirement for health care workers to change into scrubs provided by the hospital when arriving for work and changing back into their street clothes at the end of the day.
These practices along with a focus on sterilization and frequent hand washing appear to be working in Denmark where fewer than 1 percent of staph infections involve resistant strains of the bacteria while the numbers have surged to as high as 50 percent in some U.S. hospitals.