Re-purposing of domestic steam disinfectors within the hospital-at-home setting

Abstract

Background: Vulnerable patients being cared for in hospital-at-home settings require safe disinfection of their medical devices, including nebulisers and other respiratory equipment. The scale of patients now being cared for in hospital-at-home settings as a result of COVID19 places huge pressure on hospital central sterile services departments (CSSDs) to provide consumable items to safely support such patients' care. This places new importance on the disinfection of mundane objects, including crockery, cutlery and frequently touched objects in the home environment. This study examined temperature performance of steam disinfectors and the consequences of potential operator misuse on the survival of 62 bacteria and yeast organisms. Methods: Thermal performance of steam disinfectors was evaluated using calibrated thermocouple probes in multiple permutations of device usage with 62 test organisms. Results: Thermocouple data demonstrated disinfection A 0 values of 6000 (upper layer) and 60 (lower layer). Steam disinfection of baby bottles had a thermal lethality of at least A 0 Z 600. Variation in disinfector temperatures were noted, depending on the geometric location of thermocouples. Additional notable temperature reductions occurred with device underfilling with suboptimal water volumes. Steam disinfection eradicated all 62 non-spore-forming Gram-positive, Gram-negative and yeast organisms tested and eradicated all organisms in the inner teat space of contaminated babies' dummies, rendering safe steam disinfection of babies' dummies. Conclusion: Domestic steam disinfection offers an inexpensive, simple, versatile and widely available technology for the elimination of common non-spore-forming nosocomial pathogens and safe disinfection of medical devices, fomites and other mundane objects within the hospital-at-home scenario, thereby enhancing patient safety.

Re-opening hairdressing salons, barber shops and gyms following COVID-19 lockdown: reducing risks from Legionella species through successful domestic steam disinfection of showerheads

“…This study examined the performance of steam disinfection using a domestic steam disinfector device for the disinfection of showerheads contaminated with Legionella species. Recently, our group reported on the thermal performance of baby bottle steam disinfectors in the hospital-at-home setting [ 8 ]. That study showed that such steam disinfectors can reach temperatures of 100 °C [ 8 ].…”

“…Recently, our group reported on the thermal performance of baby bottle steam disinfectors in the hospital-at-home setting [ 8 ]. That study showed that such steam disinfectors can reach temperatures of 100 °C [ 8 ].…”

“…At higher temperatures, L. pneumophila strains reached a 4-log reduction in a range between 2–4 min at 60 °C and 1 min at 65 and 70 °C. Given these heat inactivation data, the time/temperature profiles achieved by the baby bottle steam disinfector device [ 8 ] would exceed these requirements, and hence the device was able to eradicate all Legionella organisms on the contaminated showerhead in the current study.…”

“…The ‘Nuby Natural Touch Steriliser and Dryer’ (Model number: BB1022-GS; 220–240V; 50–60 Hz; 650 W; Nuby UK) domestic steam disinfector device was examined in this study, as previously described [ 8 ]. Briefly, this domestic baby bottle steam disinfector device consists of five components: base, main body, lower tray, upper tray and lid.…”

Re-purposing of domestic steam disinfectors within the Hospital-at-Home setting: Reconciliation of steam disinfector thermal performance against SARS- CoV-2 (COVID-19), norovirus and other viruses’ thermal susceptibilities

“…Recently, our group published a paper in Infection, Disesase & Health describing the re-purposing of domestic steam disinfectors to eradicate bacterial pathogens within the Hospital-at-Home scenario [ 1 ]. The main value of this paper is the description of time/temperature combinations within the steam disinfector device, as determined by employment of calibrated thermocouple probes, as shown in Table 1 (Thermal performance of steam disinfector using the A0 Concept according to EN ISO 15883).…”