Probiotics are defined as live microorganisms, which when administered in adequate amounts, confer a health benefit on the host. Health benefits have mainly been demonstrated for specific probiotic strains of the following genera: Lactobacillus, Bifidobacterium, Saccharomyces, Enterococcus, Streptococcus, Pediococcus, Leuconostoc, Bacillus, Escherichia coli. The human microbiota is getting a lot of attention today and research has already demonstrated that alteration of this microbiota may have far-reaching consequences. One of the possible routes for correcting dysbiosis is by consuming probiotics. The credibility of specific health claims of probiotics and their safety must be established through science-based clinical studies. This overview summarizes the most commonly used probiotic microorganisms and their demonstrated health claims. As probiotic properties have been shown to be strain specific, accurate identification of particular strains is also very important. On the other hand, it is also demonstrated that the use of various probiotics for immunocompromised patients or patients with a leaky gut has also yielded infections, sepsis, fungemia, bacteraemia. Although the vast majority of probiotics that are used today are generally regarded as safe and beneficial for healthy individuals, caution in selecting and monitoring of probiotics for patients is needed and complete consideration of risk-benefit ratio before prescribing is recommended.

Textiles are a common material in healthcare facilities; therefore it is important that they do not pose as a vehicle for the transfer of pathogens to patients or hospital workers. During the course of use hospital textiles become contaminated and laundering is necessary. Laundering of healthcare textiles is most commonly adequate, but in some instances, due to inappropriate disinfection or subsequent recontamination, the textiles may become a contaminated inanimate surface with the possibility to transfer pathogens. In this review we searched the published literature in order to answer four review questions: (1) Are there any reports on the survival of microorganisms on hospital textiles after laundering? (2) Are there any reports that indicate the presence of microorganisms on hospital textiles during use? (3) Are there any reports that microorganisms on textiles are a possible source infection of patients? (4) Are there any reports that microorganisms on textiles are a possible source infection for healthcare workers?

The skin and its microbiota serve as physical barriers to prevent invasion of pathogens. Skin damage can be a consequence of illness, surgery, and burns. The most effective wound management strategy is to prevent infections, promote healing, and prevent excess scarring. It is well established that probiotics can aid in skin healing by stimulating the production of immune cells, and they also exhibit antagonistic effects against pathogens via competitive exclusion of pathogens. Our aim was to conduct a review of recent literature on the efficacy of using probiotics against pathogens that cause wound infections. In this integrative review, we searched through the literature published in the international following databases: PubMed, ScienceDirect, Web of Science, and Scopus using the search terms “probiotic” AND “wound infection.” During a comprehensive review and critique of the selected research, fourteenin vitrostudies, 8 animal studies, and 19 clinical studies were found. Two of thesein vitrostudies also included animal studies, yielding a total of 39 articles for inclusion in the review. The most commonly used probiotics for all studies were well-known strains of the speciesLactobacillus plantarum,Lactobacillus casei,Lactobacillus acidophilus, andLactobacillus rhamnosus.Allin vitrostudies showed successful inhibition of chosen skin or wound pathogens by the selected probiotics. Within the animal studies on mice, rats, and rabbits, probiotics showed strong opportunities for counteracting wound infections. Most clinical studies showed slight or statistically significant lower incidence of surgical site infections, foot ulcer infection, or burn infections for patients using probiotics. Several of these studies also indicated a statistically significant wound healing effect for the probiotic groups. This review indicates that exogenous and oral application of probiotics has shown reduction in wound infections, especially when used as an adjuvant to antibiotic therapy, and therefore the potential use of probiotics in this field remains worthy of further studies, perhaps focused more on typical skin inhabitants as next-generation probiotics with high potential.

The objective of this study was to survey health professionals to investigate their knowledge of probiotics. An online survey was conducted to gather data on the knowledge of health professionals. The online survey was distributed via email and social media platforms using snowball sampling. A total of 1066 health professionals (859; 80.6% female) from 30 countries responded to the survey. Most of the respondents evaluated their knowledge of probiotics as medium (36.4%) or good (36.2%). Only 8.9% of the respondents rated it as excellent. No statistical difference in knowledge was found between male and female health professionals. Over 80% of pharmacists, allied health professionals, medical doctors and dentists, and other health professionals knew the correct definition of probiotics as “live microorganisms that, when administered in adequate amounts, confer a health benefit on the host”, whereas three quarters of registered nurses and midwives and less than two thirds of psychologists identified the correct definition. Statistically, more female than male health professionals knew the correct definition of probiotics. The most frequently recognized species of bacteria containing probiotic strains were Lactobacillus acidophilus (92%), Bifidobacterium bifidum (82%), and Lactobacillus rhamnosus (62%). The opinions on when it is best to take probiotics were different (χ² = 28.375; p < 0.001), with 90.2% of respondents identifying that probiotics have beneficial effects if taken during antibiotic therapy, 83.5% for diarrhea, 70.6% for constipation, 63.3% before traveling abroad, and 60.4% for treating allergies. Almost 79% of health professionals involved in this study have advised their patients to use probiotics and 57.5% of the respondents wanted to learn more about probiotics. All things considered, health professionals have a medium level of knowledge of probiotics, which could be improved by the implementation of targeted learning programs. As probiotics have many beneficial effects in a wide range of health areas, health professionals need to adopt the use of probiotics in clinical practice.

This Special Issue of the journal Microorganisms highlights the importance of the antimicrobial effect of probiotics