A new hospital room disinfection technology has been found to keep bugs at bay following a serious outbreak.
Medizone International has reported that an entire ward at a public hospital is still 100% free from MRSA six months after a major outbreak.
In early June 2013, seven patient rooms on a 14-room ward at Quinte Health Care's Belleville General Hospital in Ontario, Canada, were quarantined after being hit by a rapidly spreading strain of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA).
It is the only system we know of that can actually eliminate 100% of infective pathogens with a single room treatment
Dr Dick Zoutman, chief of staff for the hospital, said: "On average we have had one or two new MRSA cases per month on the ward. This is in keeping with averages being reported within the healthcare system nationally.
“In June we noted a rapidly-spreading MRSA problem on the ward that reached seven rooms over a short period of time. That is when we began using Medizone International's AsepticSure room disinfection system. It is the only system we know of that can actually eliminate 100% of infective pathogens with a single room treatment.
"We have learned that obtaining even a 99.9% bacterial kill is not enough, as the remaining 0.1% of bacteria immediately begin growing back, causing the problem of infection to start all over again in a few short hours.
“AsepticSure is proven to kill bacterial spores that can lurk in hospital rooms for months."
Zoutman is a co-inventor of the AsepticSure system, along with Dr Michael E Shannon.
"The results were immediate," Zoutman said.
"MRSA was immediately and entirely eliminated from the ward. The AsepticSure system was straightforward to use and quick, with complete room disinfection occurring in an hour. To prove to ourselves that the AsepticSure system was working, we performed cultures of 120 surfaces of the treated rooms before and after the AsepticSure system was used. The results were amazing. Virtual complete elimination of all bacteria on the room surfaces after AsepticSure was used.”
However, the longer-term effects were not fully appreciated until after a six-month follow-up had been completed. Only then was it realised that not only had the rooms remained free of MRSA, no further cases of MRSA were noted on the ward during this period.
In addition to full room disinfection, all support equipment associated with each contaminated room were also disinfected using AsepticSure, and this may have played an important role as well in virtually eliminating MRSA from the ward
"It is noteworthy in this regard that, in addition to full room disinfection, all support equipment associated with each contaminated room were also disinfected using AsepticSure – and this may have played an important role as well in virtually eliminating MRSA from the ward," said Dr Shannon, president of Medizone International and a former director general of the Laboratory Center for Disease Control at Health Canada
“These mobile pieces of patient care equipment are notoriously hard to clean by hand. AsepticSure made disinfecting them very easy. This could be a game changer."