skin and clothing of health care personnel during removal of personal protective equipment (PPE) contributes to dissemination of pathogens and places personnel at risk for infection.OBJECTIVES To determine the frequency and sites of contamination on the skin and clothing of personnel during PPE removal and to evaluate the effect of an intervention on the frequency of contamination.

Contaminated surfaces are a suspected source for dissemination of the globally emerging pathogen Candida auris. In laboratory testing, sporicidal and improved hydrogen peroxide disinfectants were highly effective against C. auris, C. glabrata, and C. albicans. The widely used quaternary ammonium disinfectants exhibited relatively poor activity against all of the Candida species. Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol 2017;38:1240-1243.

Contaminated surfaces have been implicated as a potential route for dissemination of the emerging multidrug-resistant fungal pathogen Candida auris. In laboratory testing, C. auris and other Candida species persisted for 7 days on moist or dry surfaces. Candida species were recovered frequently from the hospital environment, particularly from moist surfaces. Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol 2017;38:1107-1109.

objective. To determine the effectiveness of a pulsed xenon ultraviolet (PX-UV) disinfection device for reduction in recovery of healthcareassociated pathogens.setting. Two acute-care hospitals.methods. We examined the effectiveness of PX-UV for killing of Clostridium difficile spores, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), and vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus (VRE) on glass carriers and evaluated the impact of pathogen concentration, distance from the device, organic load, and shading from the direct field of radiation on killing efficacy. We compared the effectiveness of PX-UV and ultraviolet-C (UV-C) irradiation, each delivered for 10 minutes at 4 feet. In hospital rooms, the frequency of native pathogen contamination on high-touch surfaces was assessed before and after 10 minutes of PX-UV irradiation.results. On carriers, irradiation delivered for 10 minutes at 4 feet from the PX-UV device reduced recovery of C. difficile spores, MRSA, and VRE by 0.55 ± 0.34, 1.85 ± 0.49, and 0.6 ± 0.25 log 10 colony-forming units (CFU)/cm 2 , respectively. Increasing distance from the PX-UV device dramatically reduced killing efficacy, whereas pathogen concentration, organic load, and shading did not. Continuous UV-C achieved significantly greater log 10 CFU reductions than PX-UV irradiation on glass carriers. On frequently touched surfaces, PX-UV significantly reduced the frequency of positive C. difficile, VRE, and MRSA culture results.conclusions. The PX-UV device reduced recovery of MRSA, C. difficile, and VRE on glass carriers and on frequently touched surfaces in hospital rooms with a 10-minute UV exposure time. PX-UV was not more effective than continuous UV-C in reducing pathogen recovery on glass slides, suggesting that both forms of UV have some effectiveness at relatively short exposure times. 2015;36(2):192-197 Automated room disinfection technologies are increasingly being used as an adjunct to standard cleaning and disinfection in healthcare facilities. Ultraviolet (UV) radiation devices have been most widely adopted owing to the efficiency and welldocumented efficacy of UV irradiation. Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol1-7 Several UV room disinfection devices are now being marketed. Most of these devices use low pressure mercury gas bulbs, but recently pulsed xenon flash bulbs have also been incorporated into disinfection systems. UV radiation has peak germicidal effectiveness in the wavelength range from 240 to 280 nm.

Mobile ultraviolet-C (UV-C) light room decontamination devices are frequently used as an adjunct to standard cleaning in healthcare facilities, but their efficacy in killing Candida species is not clear. In laboratory testing, the emerging multidrug-resistant Candida auris and 2 other Candida species were significantly less susceptible to killing by UV-C than methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol 2018;39:94-96.