ABSTRACT
Ortho-phthalaldehyde (OPA), a high-level disinfectant alternative to glutaraldehyde, was tested for efficacy against human hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) using surrogate animal viruses. HBV and HCV are the most prevalent human bloodborne viruses but have not yet been propagated in the laboratory. The surrogate viruses, duck hepatitis B virus (DHBV) and bovine viral diarrhea virus (BVDV), were used to assess the virucidal efficacy of OPA on HBV and HCV, respectively. After a timed exposure to the test disinfectant, the surrogate virus dried on a hard surface was neutralized and assayed to detect viable viruses using appropriate cell lines. A greater than 4-log(10) reduction in virus titer was demonstrated using dilute OPA solutions against dried DHBV and BVDV after 5 minutes of exposure at 20 degrees C. OPA was shown to be efficacious against surrogate viruses for human hepatitis B and hepatitis C virus. This is the first time that OPA efficacy has been demonstrated for HBV and HCV.
Subject(s)
Antiviral Agents/pharmacology , Hepacivirus/drug effects , Hepatitis B virus/drug effects , Microbial Viability/drug effects , o-Phthalaldehyde/pharmacology , Animals , Cattle , Cell Line , Hepatitis B Virus, Duck/drug effects , Pestivirus/drug effects , Temperature , Time Factors , Virus InactivationSubject(s)
Disease Outbreaks , Methicillin Resistance , Skin Diseases, Bacterial/epidemiology , Staphylococcal Infections/epidemiology , Staphylococcus aureus/isolation & purification , Humans , Los Angeles/epidemiology , Prisons , Skin Diseases, Bacterial/drug therapy , Staphylococcal Infections/drug therapy , Staphylococcal Infections/microbiologyABSTRACT
Bloodborne pathogens are transmitted from person to person by sexual contact and by injection of druges and, in health-care settings, by needlesticks and, in the case of HBV, by mucous membrane exposure. Conventional disinfection and sterilization and housekeeping strategies are sufficient for the environmental control of bloodborne viruses. Environmentally mediated infection transmission of bloodborne viruses is unlikely and only HBV, because of the extraordinarily high viral concentration in blood, is thought to have a real potential for such transmission. No epidemiologic or laboratory data support the hypothesis that surgeons or other health care workers are at increased risk of infection by bloodbore pathogens. Although theoretically possible, airborne transmission does not appear likely. Studies that claim to show the potential for airborne transmission of bloodborne pathogens ignore the basic principles of aerobiology and the requirements for proving environmental transmission
