title: Testing linen disinfection procedures in practice with phage-charged-bioindicators.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Disinfecting laundry processes are essential to avoid contamination of laundering machines and linen during commercial laundry reprocessing in the health care sector. Recently a bacteriophage-charged bioindicator has been developed using MS2 as surrogate virus for testing of low-temperature disinfecting laundry processing on efficacy against viruses related to practice. This paper therefore aims to investigate application of MS2-bioindicators in chemothermal processes under practical conditions (phase 2/step 2) and in practice (phase 3).
  
  
  METHODS
  The experimental design was developed and modified according to the German Society for Hygiene and Microbiology (DGHM) Standard Methods for Testing Chemical Disinfection Processes. Tests under practical conditions were performed at 60 degrees C and 70 degrees C. Additional tests in tunnel washers were carried out at 60 degrees C and 70 degrees C. In all experiments validated disinfecting laundry processes, recommended for bactericidal and virucidal performance (categories A and B), were applied.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The results show a temperature-dependent gradual efficacy against the test virus MS2 up to reduction values of more than 8 log10-steps. Therefore MS2-bioindicators prove to be suitable as a tool to determine the performance of disinfection procedures against viruses in practice.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Phage-charged bioindicators may be a tool to provide further insights into the reliability of antiviral laundry processes for health care quality management and for infection control.
authors.affiliation: Hohenstein Institute, Institute for Hygiene and Biotechnology, Boennigheim, Germany.
authors.forename: Anja
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gerhardts
authors.forename: Helmut
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Mucha
authors.forename: Dirk
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Höfer
mesh_terms: D001512:Bedding and Linens; D004203:Disinfection / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D007847:Laundry Service, Hospital / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D017909:Levivirus; D013696:Temperature; D013997:Time Factors