Medical textiles and healthcare-associated infections: A comprehensive review

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

In recent years, healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) have emerged as a major global challenge in the medical field, seriously threatening the health and safety of patients and healthcare workers. Among the various transmission routes, the spread of pathogens through medical textiles such as hospital uniforms, bed linens, curtains, towels, floor mops and wiping cloths has been fully documented, highlighting the increasingly prominent importance of textile hygiene and infection control measures. However, systematic research in this field remains relatively limited and the core factors influencing infection transmission via textiles have not been fully elucidated, representing a critical bottleneck in HAI prevention and control. This review systematically examines the role of medical textiles in mediating HAI transmission, defines the potential risks they pose to patients and healthcare workers, elucidates the key factors affecting pathogen adhesion on textile surfaces, analyzes deficiencies in current textile hygiene practices and provides a detailed overview of prevention and control strategies that have been applied to mitigate HAI transmission through medical textiles. It aims to offer theoretical support and practical guidance for constructing a precision HAI prevention and control system and for guiding medical textile hygiene practices.