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Assessment of the effectiveness of ultraviolet-C disinfection on transmission of hospital-acquired pathogens from prior room occupants

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 July 2022

Jacob C. Hodges
Affiliation:
Wolff Center, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Andrew L. Bilderback
Affiliation:
Wolff Center, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Christine M. Bridge
Affiliation:
Wolff Center, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Suzanne Wagester
Affiliation:
Wolff Center, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Bonnie V. Colaianne
Affiliation:
Wolff Center, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Ahmed Babiker
Affiliation:
Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia
Tami Minnier
Affiliation:
Wolff Center, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Rachel L. Zapf
Affiliation:
Wolff Center, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Paula L. Kip
Affiliation:
Wolff Center, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Graham M. Snyder*
Affiliation:
Department of Infection Prevention and Control, UPMC Presbyterian Hospital, Pittsburgh, PennsylvaniaDivision of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
*
Author for correspondence: Graham M. Snyder, MD, MS, Falk Medical Building, 3601 Fifth Avenue, Suite 150, Pittsburgh, PA 15213. E-mail: snydergm3@upmc.edu

Abstract

Objective:

To evaluate the effectiveness of ultraviolet-C (UV-C) disinfection as an adjunct to standard chlorine-based disinfectant terminal room cleaning in reducing transmission of hospital-acquired multidrug-resistant organisms (MDROs) from a prior room occupant.

Design:

A retrospective cohort study was conducted to compare rates of MDRO transmission by UV-C status from January 1, 2016, through December 31, 2018.

Setting:

Acute-care, single-patient hospital rooms at 6 hospitals within an academic healthcare system in Pennsylvania.

Methods:

Transmission of hospital-acquired MDRO infection was assessed in patients subsequently assigned to a single-patient room of a source occupant with carriage of 1 or more MDROs on or during admission. Acquisition of 5 pathogens was compared between exposed patients in rooms with standard-of-care chlorine-based disinfectant terminal cleaning with or without adjunct UV-C disinfection. Logistic regression analysis was used to estimate the adjusted risk of pathogen transfer with adjunctive use of UV-C disinfection.

Results:

In total, 33,771 exposed patient admissions were evaluated; the source occupants carried 46,688 unique pathogens. Prior to the 33,771 patient admissions, 5,802 rooms (17.2%) were treated with adjunct UV-C disinfection. After adjustment for covariates, exposed patients in rooms treated with adjunct UV-C were at comparable risk of transfer of any pathogen (odds ratio, 1.06; 95% CI, 0.84–1.32; P = .64).

Conclusion:

Our analysis does not support the use of UV-C in addition to post-discharge cleaning with chlorine-based disinfectant to lower the risk of prior room occupant pathogen transfer.

Information

Type
Original Article
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BYCreative Common License - NCCreative Common License - SA
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the same Creative Commons licence is used to distribute the re-used or adapted article and the original article is properly cited. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained prior to any commercial use.
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America
Figure 0

Table 1.Summary of Analysis Data Set

Figure 1

Table 2.Characteristics of Source and Exposed Patients

Figure 2

Table 3.Unadjusted Pathogen Transfer Rate by Cleaning Room Condition

Figure 3

Table 4.Logistic Regression Model of Factors Associated with Pathogen Transfer

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