Germgard UVC dispenser sterilises bare or gloved hands
Sterilisation process takes just a few seconds
Germgard Lighting, a US firm with a multi-tiered approach to infection protection, has developed and independently tested a small UVC dispenser for sterilising bare or gloved hands that achieves –6log10 inactivation of all relevant pathogens, including Clostridium difficile spores.
The firm, which is funded by and located in an innovation incubator on the campus of the US Army Picatinny Arsenal in New Jersey, has developed a simple way to protect bare skin from UVC exposure. Sterilisation of gloved or bare hands takes only a few seconds, including an exposure time of only two seconds.
Germgard Lighting suggests that increased hand hygiene compliance with this solution would lower infection rates.
Placing the UVC dispenser in any convenient location should also raise the compliance rate over a similarly placed alcohol dispenser since it takes only two seconds for the sanitation step, which does not irritate bare hands.
Replacing an alcohol dispenser or sink with this solution would also be more effective on bare hands at any comparable level of compliance, the firm says.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) suggests that because surfaces in a ward or patient room are unavoidably contaminated, healthcare workers or visitors should use bedside hand sanitation every time they administer to or touch the patient, or the patient surroundings. WHO refers to this requirement as the “critical five moments of hand sanitation”.
Reports suggest that effective hand sanitation as per WHO guidelines requires 100–180 implementations per day for each healthcare worker, which means approximately 100 minutes of dedicated hand sanitation daily.
Germgard says the WHO recommendations are not feasible with current technology.
Moreover, gloved hands are not sanitised before and during use, yet can also transmit pathogens during patient care. Furthermore, no requirements are put on visitor hand sanitation. Not surprisingly, the company says, with such ineffective solutions, and low compliance, progress in infection rate reduction has been minimal.
Germgard claims to have overcome all of the limitations of current approaches with its UVC sterilisation system.
“Our breakthrough, patent-applied-for technology represents an extraordinary, unique, and effective solution to the critical infection need: fast and effective bare and gloved hand sterilisation in surgery, in ICUs, and in patient rooms,” said Germgard’s ceo Eugene Gordon.
