Purpose and Goals
- Evaluate and compare the antimicrobial efficacies of 6 disinfection devices against a variety of microbes in different test conditions in laboratory-controlled testing.
Materials and Methods
- Each test will include 6 disinfection devices: Device A and Device B.
- Each test will include 3 exposure times: 5 minutes, 10 minutes, and 20 minutes.
- 3 replicate discs will be tested for each testing condition.
- Bacterial/fungal tests will be performed 2 independent times. Viral tests will be performed once.
- Each test will include one microbial strain:
- Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) bacteria
- Clostridioides difficile (formerly known as Clostridium difficile) bacterial spores
- Viral strain to be determined
Air Chamber Testing:
- This testing will utilize a biological air chamber to evaluate the device efficacy of microbes in the air. A liquid microbial suspension will be introduced to the chamber for exposure to the disinfection device. After exposure, a sample of the microbes in the chamber will be recovered to provide viable microbial burden data for each condition tested.
- Each test will include 2 device settings:
- Disinfection only
- Disinfection and fan
Data Analysis
- Data will be calculated to determine the quantifiable bacterial/fungal burden in colony-forming units per disc (CFU/disc) or viral burden in plaque- or foci-forming units per disc (PFU/disc or FFU/disc) remaining on each test location.
- Data will be analyzed to determine the consistency between replicate discs.
- Data will be analyzed to compare the efficacies of each device/exposure time to determine the percent reductions and log reductions of microbial burdens compared to unexposed discs.
Typical Turn Around Time
- Bacterial/fungal (per strain): 4-6 weeks following receipt of the test devices.
- Viral (per strain): 6-8 weeks following receipt of the test devices
