Application of an Ultrasonic Nebulizer Closet in the Disinfection of Textiles and Footwear

Abstract

The emergence of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic highlighted the importance of disinfection processes in health safety. Textiles and footwear have been identified as vectors for spreading infections. Therefore, their disinfection can be crucial to controlling pathogens’ dissemination. The present work aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of a commercial disinfectant aerosolized by an ultrasonic nebulizer closet as an effective method for disinfecting textiles and footwear. The disinfection was evaluated in three steps: suspension tests; nebulization in a 0.08 m3 closet; nebulization in the upscaled 0.58 m3 closet. The disinfection process of textiles and footwear was followed by the use of bacteriophages, bacterial spores, and bacterial cells. The disinfection in the 0.58 m3 closet was efficient for textiles (4 log reduction) when bacteriophage Lambda, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Bacillus subtilis were used. The footwear disinfection was achieved (4 log reduction) in the 0.08 m3 closet for Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus. Disinfection in an ultrasonic nebulization closet has advantages such as being quick, not wetting, being efficient on porous surfaces, and is performed at room temperature. Ultrasonic nebulization disinfection in a closet proves to be useful in clothing and footwear stores to prevent pathogen transmission by the items’ widespread handling.

Kinetics of inactivation of bacteria responsible for infections in hospitals using UV-LED

“…To prepare a lambda phage stock solution, bacteriophage Lambda DSM 4499 was grown and cryopreserved by promoting the host bacterium E. coli DSM 4230 infection on Luria–Bertani (LB) agar medium through the top agar layer method, as described previously [ 4 ]. An inoculum of the bacteriophage Lambda DSM 4499 was obtained from the respective stock suspension.…”

“…To quantify the PFU, 100 μL of the 10-fold serial dilutions were mixed with the same volume of E. coli DSM 4230 host suspension (0.3 OD600nm in 0.85 % (w/v) NaCl). The mixture was then plated using the top agar layer method as described by Henriques and colleagues [ 4 ].…”

“…The emergence of the coronavirus (COVID-19) highlighted the importance of disinfection processes in health safety [ 3 ]. Therefore, maintaining strategic bacterial disinfection in the environment is crucial [ 4 ].…”

“…Manually executed disinfection processes are operator-dependent and tend not to be as efficient as required [ 4 , 10 ]. In addition, many of the contaminated areas are inaccessible by conventional manual disinfection methods in healthcare facilities [ 4 , 10 ].…”

“…Manually executed disinfection processes are operator-dependent and tend not to be as efficient as required [ 4 , 10 ]. In addition, many of the contaminated areas are inaccessible by conventional manual disinfection methods in healthcare facilities [ 4 , 10 ]. On the other hand, automated decontamination technologies, such as ultraviolet (UV) light, have long been known to demonstrate antimicrobial effects and are considered “non-touch” methods [ 1 , 10 ].…”