[Comparison of susceptibility of spores of Bacillus subtilis and Czech strains of Clostridium difficile to disinfectants].
An important factor in the prevention of nosocomial outbreaks caused by Clostridium difficile ribotype 027 is the disinfection of a patient environment by reliable sporicidal disinfectants. Sporicidal activity of particular agents is tested on spores of Bacillus subtilis. Questions are brought up if the disinfectant which works on B. subtilis spores will be equally effective on the spores of C. difficile. Therefore we have compared the effects of five disinfectants available on the Czech market on the spores of collection strains of both microbes and on the spores of ten C. difficile field strains isolated from feces of hospitalized patients. The effective substances were: disinfectant No. 1 chloramine B, No. 2 chlorine dioxide, No. 3 formaldehyde and ethan-2-dion, No. 4 peracetic and acetic acids and hydrogen peroxide, No. 5 ethanol and propan-2-ol. The testing was performed using the dilution neutralization method according to (SN EN 13704, the agent reducing the number of spores by more than 3 orders was considered sporicidal. In addition to the standard time 60 min a 15-minutes exposition was used and the effect was tested also under the protein burden. Disinfectant No. 1 showed better effect on the C. difficile than B. subtilis spores, even in lower (1%) concentration. Similarly, the sensitivity of the C. difficile spores to disinfectants No. 2 and 3 was somewhat higher. The sporicidity of the disinfectant No. 4 was so high that it reduced the number of spores of all strains within 15 minutes by more than 4 orders; possible difference in the susceptibility of spores was not observed. Whereas the disinfectant No. 5 was not reliably effective on the spores of B. subtilis, surprisingly it showed the sporicidal effect on the spores of field C. difficile strains. We conclude that spores of field C. difficile strains in particular turned out to be more sensitive to disinfectants than the spores of the collection strain ofB. subtilis. Therefore B. subtilis remains the right species for testing the sporicidal activity of disinfectants.
Mikrobiologický ustav LF MU a FN u svaté Anny, Brno. mvotava@med.muni.cz
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D001412:Bacillus subtilis / Q000187:drug effects*; D016360:Clostridioides difficile / Q000187:drug effects*; D004202:Disinfectants / Q000494:pharmacology*; D013171:Spores, Bacterial / Q000187:drug effects
D004202:Disinfectants