The importance of disinfection and how to use UV based technology
The past couple of years have demonstrated just how important proper disinfection is. The coronavirus pandemic showed us all how easily some pathogens can spread. All kinds of measures were taken to slow down the spread of the virus: cough into the crook of your elbow, don't shake people’s hands, keep 1.5 metres’ distance from others, wear a face mask, disinfect your hands frequently, make sure your room is well ventilated, etc. But how can such rules be enforced in an environment where patients need to be cared for? Additional measures must be implemented to prevent people from infecting one another in hospitals or healthcare institutions. UV based light can help in such environments because it is a fast, effective and reliable way to eliminate micro-organisms. Read more about it in this article.
Healthcare applications
Equipment that has come in contact with a patient, or beds or tables on which patients have lain, must be disinfected so that the next person lying on them will not be infected by whatever virus the previous patient may have been carrying. However, this process can be rather time-consuming for staff and is therefore often omitted – an alarming idea, but all too true, unfortunately. This is why more and more products are being marketed that can help staff with their cleaning tasks, such as robots that enter the OR after an operation and disinfect all the surfaces there by means of UV based light. Another such product is our D25, which nursing staff can use to quickly disinfect infusion pumps or thermometers.
What methods are currently being used?
Current disinfection methods tend to require manual effort, and are simply too cumbersome and prone to mistakes to ensure reliable healthcare. Take, for instance, a method whereby disinfecting wipes are used to disinfect a product or surface. If you really want to reduce the number of micro-organisms on the product or surface and render them inactive, the cleaning process must take several minutes. Disinfecting wipes often contain alcohol, and exposure to alcohol destroys viruses. However, it takes some time for alcohol to penetrate the protein layer of a virus – approximately two minutes. Alcohol does not penetrate dirt and grease, so pre-cleaning is mandatory, even when disinfecting wipes are used. This is why disinfecting objects and surfaces with wipes is not really user-friendly.
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When validated UV based products are used, this manual and error-prone process is eliminated and a certain log reduction is guaranteed, which is exactly what is needed in the healthcare industry. With the advent of these products, nursing staff can be relieved of the burden of fighting pathogens. By automating the disinfection process and making the cleaning devices easy to use, healthcare institutions can relieve their nurses of a time-consuming duty, thus allowing them to focus entirely on what they have been trained to do, which is to look after patients and promote their wellbeing.
If you’d like to learn more about disinfection based on UV, be sure to read ‘How to Use UV based technology Reliable’.
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