This is the second of a blog series by Alice Brewer, Clinical Affairs Director for Tru-D SmartUVC.
Time is a critical commodity – there always seems to be too little of it, and anything that we can do to improve efficiency is important. Being able to thoroughly disinfect a room with UVC with one placement and one cycle is definitely a timesaver, but the question of whether you can really reach all surfaces in a room, even those in shadowed areas, with one cycle, persists.
It’s a valid question and worth addressing. So, let’s take a look at what we know from the research that is already out there. Note that the following studies are independent, third-party studies in which Tru-D had no financial or scientific contribution.
In their 2013 study, Anderson et. al. cultured sites in 39 rooms, including sites that were in shadowed (indirect) areas. They placed Tru-D in the center of the room and ran one cycle. A greater than 1 log10 reduction was achieved even in shadowed areas. These included sites in the bathroom – which does not require running a separate cycle. In fact, log10 reduction of C. diff was actually greater in this study in the indirect line of sight areas (1.18 log10) than in the direct line of sight areas (0.80 log10).
Individual results may vary based on numerous factors including adherence to standard disinfection protocol.
Another study, also from 2013, by Mahida et al. saw similar results in shadowed areas. Researchers placed Tru-D in the center of the room and even moved furniture away from the walls to ensure complete room disinfection. In this study, log10 reductions of multidrug-resistant organisms ranged from >4.0 to 1.0 and included sites in both an operating room and patient rooms.
To discuss further the properties of UVC light and how Tru-D can be effective with one cycle, even in shadowed areas, visit https://tru-d.com/howuvcworks/.
Stay tuned for the next part of our blog series.