ADVERTISING FEATURE
Decontamination Services: A Vision for the Future
Long before COVID-19 emerged, hospitals were contending with massive infection spread. The pandemic has only amplified a warning long issued by infection-control experts: hospitals must do more to protect patients, staff, and visitors from dangerous pathogens wafting through the air.
In high-income countries, 5 to 10% of hospitalised patients, including 30% of intensive-care patients, contract an infection during their stay. Infection also remains an occupational hazard for healthcare workers, who face extended exposure to infectious environments. There are many reasons why healthcare workers
are particularly vulnerable to COVID-19. At one Wuhan hospital, two-thirds of the ICU staff were infected. At another, healthcare workers comprised 29% of patients infected in one month. However, SARS-CoV-2, the virus causing COVID-19, is but one among numerous pathogens known to hover in hospital operating theatres and ICUs, emergency departments and wards. Influenza and norovirus routinely plague hospitals, and tuberculosis and measles outbreaks are reported annually.
A vomiting norovirus patient can emit 13,000 viral
particles; just 10 of these particles, if swallowed, can trigger illness. What’s more, airborne Norovirus particles can land on exam tables, toilet handles, and doorknobs. Bacteria can too easily contaminate hospital air and settle on high-touch surfaces. Of gravest concern: antibiotic-resistant superbugs. Already, 70% of bacteria have developed antibiotic resistance. Diseases once cured easily, now require rounds of costly, toxic drugs. Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus
(MRSA) particles, launched airborne when an infected patient coughs, can transmit infection via open wounds, feeding tubes, catheters, nasal passages, and airways. Invasive MRSA infection kills 20% of patients. “With rising levels of antimicrobial resistance worldwide, investment in infection prevention and control is an increasing priority,” UK scientists cautioned in Clinical Microbiology and Infection, prior to the coronavirus pandemic. Worldwide, hospitals now recognize the limits of
traditional air-disinfection strategies. HEPA filters only trap, rather than kill, dangerous microbes. Ultraviolet (UV) light technologies, designed to kill viral particles that slip through filters, pose health risks to humans and are not suited for continuous use.
Hospitals from Wuhan to Mumbai to Budapest
are deploying a more practical, potent approach to air disinfection: NanoStrike technology, used in Novaerus portable devices. The unobtrusive devices are proven to destroy airborne pathogens on contact, are safe for 24/7 use around vulnerable patients, and provide the first line of protection against airborne viruses and bacteria. A quiet fan draws contaminated air into the unit, where a plasma field obliterates infectious aerosols. Clean air is then expelled back into the room. “The pathogen cell becomes so stretched by our plasma that it explodes into pieces, becoming inert debris,” explains Michael Corr, an intensive- care nurse who is now a Director of Business Development at Novaerus. Independent lab tests have demonstrated
NanoStrike technology’s efficacy in reducing the airborne load of viral and bacterial particles. The technology has been tested against MS2 Bacteriophage, a surrogate for SARS-CoV-2, the virus causing COVID-19, showing a 99.99% reduction. When Budapest’s Uzsoki Hospital installed
41 Novaerus units in its COVID ward, reports the hospital’s COVID Chief Nurse, Istvánné Szegedi, “Our healthcare workers felt much safer.” Nationally, 8% of Hungary’s healthcare professionals have been infected by SARS-CoV-2; in the Uzsoki COVID ward, not one among 60 staff tested positive for antibodies.
The technology has also been shown effective in IVF settings. Patki Hospital in Kolhapur, India, installed Novaerus technology in its IVF labs and culture rooms to target airborne pathogens and pollutants known to compromise embryo development in vitro. The hospital’s IVF pregnancy rate increased from 53% to 66%. For decades, medical facilities have relied on
hand hygiene and surface cleaning to control infection spread. But COVID-19 has underscored the shortcomings of these strategies. “The healthcare industry has continued to focus
on cleaning surfaces and hands, but they’ve been missing the air,” says Felipe Soberon PhD, a plasma physicist and Novaerus’ Chief Technology Officer. “Novaerus is working to close that loop.”
For product information, FAQs, and ordering information please visit our website:
www.hrhealthcare.co.uk or follow us on: twitter @HRHealthcare1
H&R Healthcare Ltd., 3 Redcliff Road, Melton Park, Melton, Hull, HU14 3RS, UK T: +44 (0)1482 631606 | F: +44 (0)1482 631630
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