Evaluation of microbiocidal activity of superoxidized water on hospital isolates.
BACKGROUND
Prevention of nosocomial infections, pre-operative and post-operative complications is directly linked with effective disinfection and decontamination. Microbial decontamination is the most serious challenge to the today's health care practice despite the abundance of disinfectants and chemicals as there are increasing reports of emergence of resistance to the action of commonly used disinfectants. There is a need to evaluate the efficacy of newer methods of asepsis for better patient management.


OBJECTIVE
This study was designed to evaluate the microbiocidal activity of superoxidized water (SOW) on common clinical isolates, ATCC strains, vegetative cells and spores of Bacillus subtilis.


METHODS
Bacterial suspensions were treated with SOW and deionized water (control). All the tubes were incubated at 37°C for 0.5, 2.5 and 5.0 min. The number of viable cells was counted.


RESULTS
All the clinical isolates and ATCC strains were killed within 0.5 min of exposure to the SOW. Vegetative cells and spores of B. subtilis were killed after 5.0 min.


CONCLUSIONS
We conclude that SOW is an effective microbiocidal agent for routine hospital use.
Department of Microbiology, Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Rohtak, Haryana, India. drritu252@yahoo.com
Ritu
R
Aggarwal
Nidhi
N
Goel
Uma
U
Chaudhary
Vipul
V
Kumar
K Prabhat
KP
Ranjan
D000890:Anti-Infective Agents / Q000494:pharmacology*; D001419:Bacteria / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D015169:Colony Count, Microbial; D003428:Cross Infection / Q000382:microbiology; D006761:Hospitals; D006801:Humans; D006861:Hydrogen Peroxide / Q000494:pharmacology*; D050296:Microbial Viability / Q000187:drug effects*; D013171:Spores, Bacterial / Q000187:drug effects*; D013696:Temperature; D013997:Time Factors
D000890:Anti-Infective Agents; C118085:superoxidized water; D006861:Hydrogen Peroxide