title: Hydrogen peroxide room disinfection--ready for prime time?
abstract: Non-manual techniques for terminal disinfection of hospital rooms have gained increasing interest in recent years as means to reduce transmission of multidrug-resistant organisms (MDROs). A prospective crossover study by Blazejewski and colleagues in five ICUs of a French academic hospital with a high prevalence of MDRO carriers showed that two different hydrogen peroxide (H2O2)-based non-touch disinfection techniques reduced environmental contamination with MDROs after routine cleaning. This study provides further evidence of the 'in use' bioburden reduction offered by these techniques. Before H2O2-based non-touch disinfection can be recommended for routine clinical use outside specific outbreak situations, further studies need to show whether the environmental contamination reduction provided by these techniques is clinically relevant and results in reduced cross-infections with MDROs.
authors.affiliation: Infection Control Program and Division of Infectious Diseases, Geneva University Hospitals and Faculty of Medicine, Rue Gabrielle-Perret-Gentil 4, 1205, Geneva, Switzerland. benedikt.huttner@hcuge.ch.
authors.forename: Benedikt D
authors.initials: BD
authors.lastname: Huttner
authors.affiliation: Infection Control Program and Division of Infectious Diseases, Geneva University Hospitals and Faculty of Medicine, Rue Gabrielle-Perret-Gentil 4, 1205, Geneva, Switzerland. benedikt.huttner@hcuge.ch.
authors.forename: Stephan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Harbarth
mesh_terms: D003428:Cross Infection / Q000517:prevention & control*; D004202:Disinfectants / Q000494:pharmacology*; D004203:Disinfection / Q000295:instrumentation*; D004526:Efficiency; D006861:Hydrogen Peroxide / Q000494:pharmacology*; D007362:Intensive Care Units / Q000592:standards*; D014835:Volatilization
chemical_list: D004202:Disinfectants; D006861:Hydrogen Peroxide