The Emergency Medical Service Microbiome

Abstract

Emergency medical services (EMS) personnel are an integral component of the healthcare framework and function to transport patients from various locations to and between care facilities. In addition to physical injury, EMS personnel are expected to be at high risk to acquire and transmit healthcare associated infections (HAIs) in the workplace. However, currently little is known about EMS biosafety risk factors and the epidemiological contribution of EMS to pathogen transmission within and outside of the healthcare sector. Our review summarizes literature surrounding pathogen prevalence and decontamination strategies in EMS as a basis for understanding biosafety risks in the EMS environment. We conclude that additional studies are needed to investigate pathogen prevalence worldwide and create evidence-based guidelines for decontamination. Finally, we discuss emerging DNA sequencing technologies and other methods that can be applied to characterize and mitigate EMS biosafety risks in the future.