Coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid‐2019) has been associated with several cutaneous manifestations(1–3). A temporary field hospital was implemented during the pandemic peak in Madrid, Spain, to attend COVID‐19 patients with mild to moderate pneumonia.
It is accepted practice to disinfect microbiological safety cabinets with formaldehyde vapour particularly before such operations as filter changing. For some years at Shrewsbury the method described in PHLS Monograph No 61 in which 200 ml of an equal volume of commercial formalin and water were boiled away in a sealed cabinet and left undisturbed overnight has been used. The directions imply that the extra water is added to raise the humidity and so enhance the lethal effect of the formaldehyde. Unfortunately one of the effects of the extra water is to cause the inside of the cabinet to become wet from condensation. Because condensation on the load and in the chamber of low temperature steam/formaldehyde sterilisers is known to be a common cause of sterilisation failure,2 we tested our cabinet disinfection procedures.Among the many and varied recommendations for disinfecting safety cabinets (Table 1)' 3-6 only one quotes recent supportive experimental details.6 Because of the varied advice and the relative lack of published results we describe the tests we undertook and the results obtained.
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