4.5 Article

Effectiveness of a combined UV-C and ozone treatment in reducing healthcare-associated infections in hospital facilities

Journal

JOURNAL OF HOSPITAL INFECTION
Volume 139, Issue -, Pages 207-216

Publisher

W B SAUNDERS CO LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.jhin.2023.06.029

Keywords

Hospital-acquired infections; Environmental hygiene; Hospital setting; UV-C air treatment; Ozone disinfection

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This study evaluated the impact of UV-C air treatment and ozone treatment on hospital-acquired infections. The results showed that these treatments can effectively reduce pathogens, except for Clostridioides difficile. However, multiple approaches are needed to effectively prevent C. difficile.
Background: Hospital-acquired infections pose an ongoing threat to patient safety due to the presence of multi-drug-resistant organisms (MDROs) and other pathogens such as Clostridioides difficile which are dependent on thorough and effective cleaning and disinfection by personnel.Methods: This study evaluated the influence of UV-C air treatment: the air in the room was sanitized by UV-C and redirected into the room. In addition, ozone was released into the room to treat actual surfaces in low-risk areas such as hospital gyms, and high-to medium-risk areas such as hospital rooms. To this aim, a portable device designed for treating the environment air was tested against nine bacterial strains including Aspergillus spp. and Clostridioides spp.Results: The use of UV-C air treatment during daily operations and ozone treatment achieved at least a 2-log10 pathogen reduction except for Clostridioides spp. Conclusion: Effective prevention of C. difficile normally requires the use of combined approaches that include chemical compounds and disinfection agents whose toxicity can be harmful not only to patients but also to healthcare personnel. Thus, the proposed no touch device may be evaluated in future research to assess the needed requirements for its possible and full implementation in hospitals.(c) 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of The Healthcare Infection Society. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

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