Minimizing microbial contamination risk simultaneously from multiple hospital washbasins by automated cleaning and disinfection of U-bends with electrochemically activated solutions

• Published in: The Journal of hospital infection Vol. 100; no. 3; pp. e98 - e104
• Main Authors: Deasy, E.C., Moloney, E.M., Boyle, M.A., Swan, J.S., Geoghegan, D.A., Brennan, G.I., Fleming, T.E., O'Donnell, M.J., Coleman, D.C.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Elsevier Ltd 01-11-2018
• Subjects: Automated decontamination; Automation - methods; Bacteria - isolation & purification; Colony Count, Microbial; Detergents - administration & dosage; Disinfectants - administration & dosage; Disinfection - methods; Electrochemically activated solutions; Environmental Microbiology; Health Services Research; Hospitals; Infection control; Nosocomial infections; Salts - administration & dosage; Washbasin U-bends; Waste Water - microbiology; Electrochemically activated solutions; Nosocomial infections; Washbasin U-bends; Automated decontamination; Infection control
• ISSN: 0195-6701; 1532-2939
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jhin.2018.01.012

Outbreaks of infection associated with microbial biofilm in hospital hand washbasin U-bends are being reported increasingly. In a previous study, the efficacy of a prototype automated U-bend decontamination method was demonstrated for a single non-hospital pattern washbasin. It used two electrochemically activated solutions (ECA) generated from brine: catholyte with detergent properties and anolyte with disinfectant properties.
To develop and test a large-scale automated ECA treatment system to decontaminate 10 hospital pattern washbasin U-bends simultaneously in a busy hospital clinic.
A programmable system was developed whereby the washbasin drain outlets, U-bends and proximal wastewater pipework automatically underwent 10-min treatments with catholyte followed by anolyte, three times weekly, over five months. Six untreated washbasins served as controls. Quantitative bacterial counts from U-bends were determined on Columbia blood agar, Reasoner's 2A agar and Pseudomonas aeruginosa selective agar following treatment and 24 h later.
The average bacterial densities in colony-forming units/swab from treated U-bends showed a >3 log reduction compared with controls, and reductions were highly significant (P<0.0001) on all media. There was no significant increase in average bacterial counts from treated U-bends 24 h later on all media (P>0.1). P. aeruginosa was the most prevalent organism recovered throughout the study. Internal examination of untreated U-bends using electron microscopy showed dense biofilm extending to the washbasin drain outlet junction, whereas treated U-bends were free from biofilm.
Simultaneous automated treatment of multiple hospital washbasin U-bends with ECA consistently minimizes microbial contamination and thus the associated risk of infection.