Dedicated Automated Area Decontamination standards pave way for European guidelines

European work to establish standards around Automated Area Decontamination will aid hospitals when evaluating improved infection prevention solutions.

Improvements to the French Norm NFT 72 281 is leading the way towards a future European widestandard.

Sources

"European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, Annual Epidemiological Report on Communicable Diseases in Europe, 2008."
EID Roques et al
AFNOR

Improvements to the only current standard in Europe for use in Automated Area Decontamination are leading the way towards future region-wide guidelines.

The French Norm NFT 72 281 is currently the only standard dedicated to AAD, but recent updates will serve as a basis towards a future European standard, a key step towards helping healthcare providers in all Europe to include innovative technology in their fight against Healthcare Associated Infections.

Participation to the debates are very active and show strong interest of the AAD community. Key considerations in reviewing the standard were:

True real life levels of contamination of surface in healthcare institution, after cleaning and efficacy objective in terms of log reduction and ability to reach all surfaces to be processed.
Need to adapt methodology of existing testing protocol designed for liquid disinfectants to the specificities of no-touch dry surfaces decontamination.
Particular attention was given to the choice of the test germs including viruses, the preparation of the sample, the initial germ load. Extensive inter laboratory works were driven to support changes.

The step towards universal guidelines is another sign of a shift in the results gained from AAD over manual methods.

HAIs burden the EU with approximately 4 million patients contracting an infection while in hospital each year, 37,000 of them dying. This costs the facility between €694 and €13,880 for every infected patient.

With increased awareness of the role of the environment in the spread of HAIs the focus has increased on improved decontamination of hospital surfaces in high risk areas. Hydrogen peroxide based solutions for automated area decontamination is enabling a more consistent decontamination as compared to manual processes.

There is a strong demand from users and authorities for efficacy benchmarks and standards to define appropriate efficacy requirements and allow objective comparison of technologies. This update from the French norm represents a significant step towards that.

Although discussions are expected to continue at international level, key progress and consensus were already obtained. The norm is expected to be finalized later this year and will significantly help healthcare providers in the region evaluate solutions offered on the market.

Similar work is also being started on a European Standard where a work group has been established.

Advanced Sterilization Products (ASP) has since 2010 offered the GLOSAIR™Automated Area Decontamination Solution, which has played an important role for hospitals in their infection prevention work.

Diane Wake, Director of Infection Prevention and Control at The Royal Liverpool Hospital in the UK, who introduced the GLOSAIR™ system to their facility in 2011, said:

"Patients can be reassured that we are continuing to see significant falls in the number of C. diff and MRSA cases. We have halved our C. diff rates in the last year. With a greater emphasis on cleaning and cleaning standards, and the use of innovative solutions as provided by Advanced Sterilization Products, a Johnson & Johnson company, we have made tackling hospital infections our top priority, and our current performance clearly shows that our efforts are making a huge difference; we have gone from being one of the poorest to one of the best performing trusts in the country for infection control."

Find out more on the GLOSAIR™ technology.