I-Corps: Ferrate Technology in Healthcare Surfaces Disinfection

人们越来越关注与就诊相关的感染，称为医院获得性感染(HAIs)。人类免疫缺陷病毒感染导致了重大的死亡病例。在这种容易死亡的情况下，大约50%的情况与没有适当清洁(或消毒)医院病床、病房地板和医疗器械等表面有关。常用的消毒剂是漂白剂(即次氯酸钠)、过氧化氢和含有中心带正电的氮原子的盐，周围有四个有机基团(或季盐)。这些消毒剂可以有效地清洁表面，但在执行其消毒功能时会破坏医院设备和材料。此外，这些消毒剂不会产生异味，还会对最终用户的眼睛和皮肤造成刺激。在这项建议中，提出了一种基于铁和氧原子的液体高铁酸盐分子，以解决与目前使用的消毒剂相关的问题。在实验室中，高铁酸盐显示出了使多种微生物失活的巨大潜力。最近获得专利的液体高铁酸盐技术解决了高铁酸盐在溶液中的内在稳定性问题，将测试其作为表面消毒剂的商业可行性。高铁酸盐技术的成功实施将通过采用更安全的方法来降低医院的成本负担高铁酸盐已被证明是处理水和废水的有效氧化剂、混凝剂和消毒剂。值得注意的是，高铁酸盐是一种有效的消毒剂，因为它能够在低剂量下灭活各种微生物。高铁酸盐作为消毒剂的研究大多是在水环境中进行的。高铁酸盐有可能对携带几种有害细菌的表面进行消毒，这些细菌会导致人体免疫缺陷。然而，目前还没有关于高铁酸盐作为潜在的表面消毒剂的研究。这个i-Corps团队的主要方法是评估高铁酸盐在环境表面的消毒能力，特别是在医疗保健环境中。在拟议的工作中，将应用两种方法来寻求高铁酸盐作为消毒剂在医疗保健环境中的适用性。首先，将对表面消毒剂进行密集的市场评估，然后是将液体高铁酸盐产品作为医疗机构表面消毒剂商业化的最佳实践。市场评估将向卫生保健机构客户提供高铁酸盐技术是否与目前市场上可用的消毒产品相比较的信息。最后，高铁酸盐处理后将检查物理特性(即表面/衣服/皮肤的染色、气味)以及与医院材料(例如玻璃、织物、陶瓷、金属和塑料)的相互作用。评估包括外观检查、照片、丝绸测试、气味和材料变色。关于液体高铁酸盐产品清洁医疗设施表面的技术可行性和市场评估的成功的系统调查将证明高铁酸盐技术应用于医疗设施的可行性。

There has been increasing concern of infections related to visit to hospitals, called hospital-acquired infections (HAIs). HAIs have resulted in significant cases of mortality. Approximately fifty percent of such susceptible to death circumstances are related to not properly cleaning (or disinfecting) the surfaces such as hospital beds, hospital room floors, and medical devices. The common disinfectants used are bleach (i.e. sodium hypochlorite), hydrogen peroxide, and salt containing central positively charged nitrogen atom surrounded by four organic groups (or quaternary salts). These disinfectants can clean the surfaces effectively, but in performing their disinfection functions destroy hospital equipment and materials. In additions, these disinfectants have off putting odor and also cause irritation to eyes and skin to end users. In this proposal, a liquid ferrate molecule, which is based on iron and oxygen atoms, is proposed to address the problems associated with currently used disinfectants. In the laboratory, ferrate has shown tremendous potential to inactivate a wide range of microorganisms. A recent patented liquid ferrate technology, which solved the inherent issues related to stability of ferrate in solution from, will be tested for its commercial viability as a surface disinfectant. The successful implementation of ferrate technology will decrease the cost burden to hospitals by applying safer approachesFerrate has been shown to be an effective oxidant, coagulant, and disinfectant for treating water and wastewater. Significantly, ferrate is a capable disinfectant due to its ability to inactivate a wide variety of microorganisms at a low dosage. Most of the research on ferrate as a disinfectant has been carried out in an aqueous environment. Ferrate has potential in disinfecting surfaces that carry several harmful bacteria that cause HAIs. However, no study has been performed on ferrate as a potential surface disinfectant. This I-Corps team's main approach is to evaluate disinfection capabilities of ferrate on environmental surfaces, especially in healthcare settings. In the proposed work, two methodologies will be applied to seek the applicability of ferrate as a disinfectant in healthcare settings. Initially, the intensive market evaluation of surface disinfectants will be done, followed by best practice to commercialize the liquid ferrate product as a surface disinfectant for healthcare facilities. The market evaluation will provide information whether the ferrate technology stands in comparison with currently available market disinfectant products to the health care facility customers. Finally, the physical properties (i.e., staining of surfaces/clothes/skin, odor) and interactions with hospital materials (e.g., glass, fabric, ceramic, metal, and plastic) will be examined after the ferrate treatment. Evaluations include visual inspection, photographs, silk tests, smell, and discoloration of material. The proposed successful systematic investigations on technological feasibilities and market evaluation of liquid ferrate product to clean surfaces of health care facilities will demonstrate the feasibility of ferrate technology to the health care facilities.