Disinfecting personal protective equipment with pulsed xenon ultraviolet as a risk mitigation strategy for health care workers

The doffing of personal protective equipment (PPE) after contamination with pathogens such as Ebola poses a risk to health care workers. Pulsed xenon ultraviolet (PX-UV) disinfection has been used to disinfect surfaces in hospital settings. This study examined the impact of PX-UV disinfection on an Ebola surrogate virus on glass carriers and PPE material to examine the potential benefits of using PX-UV to decontaminate PPE while worn, thereby reducing the pathogen load prior to doffing. Ultraviolet (UV) safety and coverage tests were also conducted. PX-UV exposure resulted in a significant reduction in viral load on glass carriers and PPE materials. Occupational Safety and Health Administration-defined UV exposure limits were not exceeded during PPE disinfection. Predoffing disinfection with PX-UV has potential as an additive measure to the doffing practice guidelines. The PX-UV disinfection should not be considered sterilization; all PPE should still be considered contaminated and doffed and disposed of according to established protocols. Copyright (C) 2015 by the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).