A recent piece of research has explored the effectiveness of dry-fogged hydrogen peroxide (dHP) in automated room disinfection. This study was conducted in a university-affiliated hospital in Korea, and considered rooms following the discharge of a patient. The study’s methods included collecting environmental samples before and following the room’s decontamination process, with standard cleaning practices performed after samples were taken.
Notably, there was a considerable reduction of culture positivity in surface samples post-disinfection, from 20.5% to 5.1%, which demonstrates that dHP is a viable option for decontaminating isolated rooms and minimizing risk to medical personnel. However, the study highlighted the need to further optimize to address material-specific and pathogen-specific disinfection. It is worth remembering that manual cleaning is still imperative to prevent the spread of nosocomial pathogens on hospital surfaces. That is because surfaces in close proximity to patients are prone to becoming a breeding ground for pathogens.
The study indicated that even with environmental cleaning upon patient discharge, less than 50% of room surfaces get adequately disinfected. Understandingly, terminal room disinfection is highly dependent on manual methods and can involve high labor costs. Also, pathogens stand the chance of spreading to uncontaminated surfaces during manual cleaning. And other methods such as vaporized hydrogen peroxide disinfection carry exposure risks for personnel.
These insights open doors for alternatives like dry-fogged hydrogen peroxide. It holds noteworthy advantages over traditional disinfection methods – higher biocidal efficacy, user-friendly, good storage stability, and compatibility with different surface materials. This study demonstrated these benefits by assessing the clinical performance of dHP in a real-world clinical setting. And while it was found to have significant impacts, it is still crucial to perform manual cleaning and replace bedsheets with clean ones during terminal cleaning after patient discharge.
Indeed, this would be the standard practice during times of a potentially lethal infectious disease outbreak. It is also a routine protocol in Korean hospitals. Finally, the study also discussed the ‘Untact’ Room Disinfection Automation System (URDAS) designed as an automated system for surface disinfection. The system is largely user-friendly with automated functions, minimal technical difficulties and most importantly, comprehensive safety features.
Source: https://aricjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13756-025-01613-7