AUTHOR=Knobling Birte , Franke Gefion , Klupp Eva M. , Belmar Campos Cristina , Knobloch Johannes K. TITLE=Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Two Automated Room Decontamination Devices Under Real-Life Conditions JOURNAL=Frontiers in Public Health VOLUME=9 YEAR=2021 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/public-health/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2021.618263 DOI=10.3389/fpubh.2021.618263 ISSN=2296-2565 ABSTRACT=

To evaluate the effectiveness of automated room decontamination devices, a common aerosolized hydrogen peroxide (aHP) as well as a recent gaseous ozone-based device, which produces the disinfectant reagent without the need of consumables, were tested under real-life conditions. Twenty-two contaminated surfaces were positioned in different areas in a patient room with adjacent bathroom and anteroom. Following the decontamination process bacteria were recovered and reduction factors were calculated after performing quantitative culture. Following the manufactures instructions, the ozone-based device displayed a bactericidal effect (log10 > 5), whereas the aHP system failed for a high bacterial burden and achieves only a complete elimination of a realistic bioburden (log10 2). After increasing the exposure time to 30 min, the aHP device also reached a bactericidal effect. Nevertheless, our results indicate, that further research and development is necessary, to get knowledge about toxicity, efficacy and safety by using in complex hospital conditions and achieve meaningful integration in cleaning procedures, to reach positive effects on disinfection performance.