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Portable UV booth disinfects contaminated PPE
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A portable ultraviolet-C disinfection booth significantly reduced the number of pathogens such as bacteriophage MS2 and MRSA on personal protective equipment, according to recent research.
“These data suggest that the UV-C disinfection booth could be useful for rapid disinfection of contaminated full-body coverage [personal protective equipment (PPE)] used in care of patients with suspected or confirmed Ebola virus infection prior to removal,” researchers Myreen E. Tomas, MD, from the Cleveland Veterans Affairs Medical Center, and colleagues wrote.
Health care personnel are potentially at risk for contamination each time they remove their PPE, despite the use of disinfectant wipes and sprays, the researchers noted. UV-C irradiation appears to be an effective way to overcome this issue, especially against enveloped viruses such as Ebola.
Tomas and colleagues evaluated the effectiveness of the Daylight Disinfection Suite Model 1077-02 (Daylight Medical), a portable UV-C disinfection booth that decontaminates full-body coverage PPE before removal. They inoculated small sections of gloves, gowns and steel disks with bacteriophage MS2 — a nonpathogenic surrogate for small RNA viruses like Ebola — and a MRSA isolate.
The researchers placed the carriers at various heights within the booth and at various distances from the bulbs. The organisms were then treated for 30 seconds or 1, 3 and 5 minutes. The bacteriophage was incubated for 24 hours and MRSA for 48 hours.
Tomas and colleagues performed similar experiments on pathogens that they inoculated onto a face shield and a Tyvek coverall (DuPont). They suspended the suit to mimic the position of a health care work standing in the center of the booth.
Results showed that the UV-C disinfection booth yielded a reduction in bacteriophage MS2 and MRSA of at least 3 log10 colony-forming units in as little as 1 minute, the researchers wrote.
The MRSA reduction was the same regardless of height and was not significantly affected by the application of 5% fetal calf serum. However, “it is likely that efficacy would be reduced by heavy contamination with blood, stool or vomitus,” the researchers wrote. “Thus, we recommend that physical cleaning of visibly contaminated areas be performed before PPE removal.”
Although UV-C did not penetrate the PPE in this study, Tomas and colleagues recommend that other hospitals test their own PPE, including wet or heavily soiled PPE. To minimize ocular exposure to UV-C, they also suggested additional eye protection such as UV-C filtering goggles.
Future studies must assess the safety and effectiveness of the UV-C disinfecting booth on contaminated PPE worn by personnel in Ebola virus training sessions, the researchers wrote. – by Colleen Owens
Disclosure: Tomas reports no relevant financial disclosures. Please see the full study for a list of all other authors’ relevant financial disclosures.
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