2024 Volume 39 Issue 1 Pages 15-19
[Background] Contaminated healthcare environments are potential sources of infection spread, necessitating regular cleaning and disinfection. Recently, there has been a growing interest in environmental disinfection through indoor sterilization devices. Herein, we compared the sterilization effectiveness of two indoor sterilization devices: the Pulsed Xenon Ultraviolet (PX-UV) irradiation device and the ozone and hydrogen peroxide indoor sterilization device (Ozone-H2O2).
[Methods] We adjusted the inoculum concentration of seven pathogenic microorganisms, including spore-forming and multidrug-resistant bacteria relevant in healthcare settings, between 104 and 108 CFU/mL. We inoculated 10 μL of the microbial suspension onto Mueller-Hinton (MH) agar. The inoculated agar plates were tilted at a 45#176; angle, and we subjected them to 5 and 10-min PX-UV irradiation. Further, we conducted environmental sterilization using ozone-H2O2. The inoculated agar plates treated with PX-UV and ozone-H2O2 were incubated, and bacterial growth was assessed using a five-point scale.
[Results] After 5 min of PX-UV irradiation, bacterial growth was observed for Bacillus cereus and Candida parapsilosis. Following 10 min of PX-UV irradiation, minimal bacterial growth was observed for B. cereus. However, no bacteria were detected for all tested bacterial species after exposure to ozone-H2O2.
[Conclusion] In the case of PX-UV indoor sterilization, there was a tendency for spore-forming bacteria and Candida species to be less effectively sterilized.
