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Photochemical decontamination of blood components containing hepatitis B and non-A, non-B virus.

Diluted plasma samples containing 10(2), 10(3), 10(4), and 10(5) chimpanzee infectious doses (CID) of a human non-A, non-B hepatitis virus (NANBV) were treated with a combination of two psoralen compounds, 4'-aminomethyl-4,5',8-trimethylpsoralen and 4,5',8-trimethylpsoralen, and exposed to long wavelength ultraviolet. Each dilution was then transfused into one of four chimpanzees. In a second experiment, three samples containing 10(4.5) CID of hepatitis B virus (HBV) and two samples containing 10(4) CID of NANBV were treated with 8-methoxypsoralen (8-MOP) and ultraviolet irradiation. Two chimpanzees were each transfused with both a treated HBV and a treated NANBV sample. The third chimpanzee was inoculated with a treated HBV sample alone. In the six months after inoculation none of the animals showed biochemical or histological evidence of hepatitis. In experiments involving NANBV inocula, the susceptibility of the animals was confirmed by subsequent challenge with untreated NANBV. Factor VIII concentrate containing virus and photochemically treated as in the first experiment retained an average of 91% of its activity while that in the second experiment retained 94% of its activity.

Animals↗

Physiological and mathematical aspects in setting criteria for decontamination of foods by physical means.

In heat processing, microbial inactivation is traditionally described as log-linear. As a general rule, the relation between rate of inactivation and temperature is also described as a log-linear relation. The model is also sometimes applied in pressure and in pulsed electric field (PEF) processing. The model has proven its value by the excellent safety record of the last 80 years, but there are many deviations from log-linearity. This could lead to either over-processing or under-processing resulting in safety problems or, more likely, spoilage problems. As there is a need for minimal processing, accurate information of the inactivation kinetics is badly needed. To predict inactivation more precisely, models have been developed that can cope with deviations of linearity. As extremely low probabilities of survival must be predicted, extrapolation is almost always necessary. However, extrapolation is hardly possible without knowledge of the nature of nonlinearity. Therefore, knowledge of the physiology of inactivation is necessary. This paper discusses the physiology of denaturation by heat, high pressure and pulse electric field. After discussion of the physiological aspects, the various aspects of the development of inactivation models will be addressed. Both general and more specific aspects are discussed such as choice of test strains, effect of the culture conditions, conditions during processing and recovery conditions and mathematical modelling of inactivation. In addition to lethal inactivation, attention will be paid to sublethal inactivation because of its relevance to food preservation. Finally, the principles of quantitative microbiological risk assessment are briefly mentioned to show how appropriate inactivation criteria can be set.

Bacteria↗

Performance feedback of hand hygiene, using alcohol gel as the skin decontaminant, reduces the number of inpatients newly affected by MRSA and antibiotic costs.

In March 2000 the Plastic Surgery Unit of our 600-bedded district general hospital agreed to be the pilot ward for the introduction of a new standard of hand hygiene, emphasizing the use of alcohol gel on socially clean hands between clinical contact with patients. Hand hygiene practice of healthcare workers (HCWs) was observed using Formic forms. The data from completed forms were scanned into an Excel database, and results fed back to HCWs in graphical form. The case notes of patients newly affected by methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), likely to have been acquired as inpatients, were reviewed for one year before and after this performance feedback of hand hygiene. The cost of teicoplanin use (for MRSA infections) was also determined for the two periods. There was a significant reduction in the number of patients newly affected by MRSA (P<0.05), and in the use of teicoplanin, suggesting that performance feedback of hand hygiene reduces nosocomial MRSA infection rates and antibiotic use.

Alcohols↗

Decontamination and management of hazardous materials exposure victims in the emergency department.

Incidents involving releases of hazardous materials are increasing. Providing medical care to patients who may be contaminated with a hazardous material requires advance planning and specialized training and equipment. Failure to adequately prepare for this situation can result in costly contamination of medical facilities and toxic exposures to health care providers. Federal regulations may require hospitals to supply health care providers with training and protective equipment for these situations.

Decontamination↗

Metal associations in soils before and after EDTA extractive decontamination: implications for the effectiveness of further clean-up procedures.

The distribution of Pb, Ni and Zn in two contaminated soils was determined before and after treating the soils with an EDTA solution. After the EDTA extraction, the proportion of Pb accumulated in the acid-extractable fraction considerably increased, which was related to the greater degree of metal extraction from the other fractions. EDTA was also able to extract certain amounts of Pb, Zn and Ni from the silicate matrix, which implied that these extractable amounts were not so strongly fixed to the residual fraction as previously supposed. As a consequence, after EDTA application, metal content (especially Pb) remained more weakly adsorbed to soil components (more easily leachable), potentially favouring the application of phytoremediation technologies. The extraction recoveries (for only one application) were generally low for the three metals (33-37% for Pb, 5-11% for Ni and 14-19% for Zn), although this fact is an advantage as plants would not be able to assimilate very high mobilised contents of metals.

Chelating Agents↗

Evaluation of a decontamination protocol for hair shafts before mtDNA sequencing.

Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) sequencing is a powerful and sensitive method to identify the donor of shed hairs found at a crime scene. Because of the low amounts of DNA in shed hair and the sensitivity of PCR, contaminating cells (e.g. saliva, blood), sometimes present on these hairs, will be co-amplified. This will result in ambiguous sequencing results and might even lead to erroneous exclusions of suspects. We have evaluated a strategy for effectively removing saliva and blood contamination from hair samples. Unambiguous mtDNA results were obtained by incubating the hair samples in a differential lysis buffer (which contains no DTT) prior to DNA extraction. Since the nuclear DNA of the hair root is affected, this procedure should be restricted to hair shaft proportions.

Blood↗

Synergetic effect of gamma irradiation and moisture content on decontamination of sewage sludge.

Samples of concentrated municipal sewage sludge, stored for 2, 4 and 6 months, with moisture contents of 2%, 20%, 40%, 60%, and 80% were exposed to doses of 0, 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 kilogray (kGy) of gamma irradiation. Immediately after irradiation, total microbial count and bacterial pathogens in sewage sludge were determined. The results indicated that in all tested sewage sludge samples, bacterial pathogens including Enterobacter sp., Klebsiella sp., Salmonella sp., and Escherichia coli were initially detected. All doses of gamma irradiation reduced the total counts of microorganisms. D(10) of total count decreased with increase in the moisture content of the sewage sludge. The lowest lethal dose for tested bacterial pathogens was 5 kGy in air dried sewage sludge. In addition for wet sewage sludge having more than 40% moisture, the lethal dose was 1 kGy, for samples taken at different storage periods 2, 4 and 6 months, and therefore the cost per unit could be decreased to half when wet sewage sludge (about 50% moisture) was used.

Analysis of Variance↗

The efficacy of a filtered handheld far-ultraviolet disinfection device for decontamination of high-touch surfaces in healthcare settings: a genomic bacterial analysis.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Enhanced environmental disinfection is linked to reduced hospital-acquired infection rates. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the efficacy of an emerging disinfection technology, a filtered far-UV-C handheld (FFUHH) device, for reducing bacterial loads on high-touch surfaces in shared clinical workrooms, and to isolate, identify and characterize clinically significant environmental pathogens. METHODS: We compared samples from high-touch items (dictation device, mouse, armchair, desk, and keyboard) before and after FFUHH treatment. Samples were collected weekly: contact plates for colony counts and swabs before and after intervention on standardized adjacent areas for each surface, respectively. The swabs were enriched and cultured on selective media to isolate pathogens. Environmental samples, as well as clinical samples collected from patients during the study period, were validated using MALDI-TOF and whole genome sequencing. RESULTS: Among the 440 collected plates (220 before and 220 after treatment), the highest mean colony count pre-treatment was detected from armchairs, and the lowest from keyboards. The mean reduction of colony-forming units ranged 53% and 83% and was statistically significant (P < 0.05) across all surfaces except for the keyboard. We characterized multidrug-resistant Staphylococcus epidermidis ST5 and ST16 strains, a carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii, and a Klebsiella pneumoniae genetically related to a clinical isolate with a rare sequence type not previously detected in our institution. CONCLUSION: The FFUHH effectively reduced the microbial burden on high-touch surfaces. It can offer an advantage for surface disinfection and an alternative to routinely used biocides.

Humans↗