Controversies in Hospital Infection Prevention: The dirty curtain story.
Most importantly, consider privacy curtains to be like any other high-touch surface in the patient environment, and perform hand hygiene after contact with the curtain. This can be a real challenge in an ICU environment that doesn’t have private rooms, so other approaches seem wise as well: more frequent cleaning/changing of curtains (in most hospitals they are changed only when visibly soiled), use of a “pull rod” or other plastic object to allow one to pull the curtain around without touching the fabric (the plastic surface can be more easily disinfected), or use of other barriers (e.g. glass doors that turn opaque). There’s a burgeoning interest in antimicrobial fabrics (not just for this purpose, but for healthcare worker clothing, etc.), and these may also play a role
