Results of hydrogen peroxide based surface disinfection and low temperature sterilization discussed in ASP Symposium

The introduction of hydrogen peroxide surface disinfection methods at a British hospital has helped to significantly reduce cases of C. Difficile and Multi-drug Resistant Acinetobacter baumannii, delegates learned at an ASP Symposium.

Dr Tim Boswell, Consultant Medical Microbiologist and Infection Control Doctor Nottingham University Hospital, was speaking at the Tackling HAIs through the use of advanced infection prevention solutions symposium, part of the Healthcare Infection Society 2014 Conference last month.

In front of approximately 100 delegates, of the 500 who attended the event in Lyon, France, Dr Boswell talked through two case studies where Automated Area Decontamination had led to solving outbreak situations as well as a dramatic drop in healthcare associated infections at his hospital.

His talk, entitled How improved surface decontamination can help reduce healthcare associated infections – experience of Automated Area Decontamination at Nottingham University Hospital covered how H₂O₂ decontamination played a major role in their environmental control programme, massively reducing rates of C. Difficile.

Similarly, Nottingham University Hospital was in 2008 experiencing issues with cases of Multi-drug Resistant Acinetobacter baumannii in their burns unit, leading to extensive stays in hospital for the patients and extra costs to the hospital as a result. A thorough investigation identified the burns theatre as the cause of transmission, and after the deployment of an Automated Area Decontamination program using the GLOSAIR™ technology after each Multi-drug Resistant Acinetobacter baumannii patient theatre visit as an adjunct to existing measures, the outbreak was stopped and the hospital has since the introduction of these measures not had any further outbreaks despite having treated several Multi-drug Resistant Acinetobacter baumannii cases during this time.

Multi-drug Resistant Acinetobacter baumannii cases at Nottingham University Hospital

Also for norovirus the hospital has shown better decontamination results when using the GLOSAIR™ Automated Area Decontamination technology compared to using chlorine-based agents following norovirus outbreaks.

Dr Boswell’s talk was one of two at ASP’s Symposium. Dr Dominique Goullet, Honorary Hospital Practitioner, Health Consultant, France, also discussed how to select the best method between steam and low temperature sterilization. He highlighted the benefits of using low-temperature sterilization to reduce cost of instrument damages as compared with using steam sterilization. He also argued that some instruments that are today disinfected should instead be sterilized in low temperature to ensure patient safety.