Medizone International's hospital room disinfection technology has enabled an entire ward at a public hospital in Ontario, Canada to remain 100% free from Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) for six months.
In June 2013, seven patient rooms on a 14-room ward at Quinte Health Care's Belleville General Hospital were quarantined after being hit by a rapidly spreading strain of MRSA, which is one of the most common causes of serious staph infections acquired in hospitals, globally.
Dick Zoutman, Chief of Staff for the hospital, said: 'On average, we have had one or two new MRSA cases per month on the ward. This is in keeping with averages being reported within the healthcare system nationally. In June we noted a rapidly spreading MRSA problem on the ward that reached seven rooms over a short period of time.'
This is when the hospital began using Medizone's AsepticSure room disinfection system.
'It is the only system we know of that can actually eliminate 100% of infective pathogens with a single room treatment,' said Zoutman.
AsepticSure is proven to kill bacterial spores that can lurk in hospital rooms for months
'We have learned that obtaining even a 99.9% bacterial kill is not enough, as the remaining 0.1% of bacteria immediately begin growing back causing the problem of infection to start all over again in a few short hours. What is more, AsepticSure is proven to kill bacterial spores that can lurk in hospital rooms for months.'
Zoutman is a co-inventor, with Medizone's President Michael Shannon, of the AsepticSure system.
'The results were immediate. The MRSA was immediately and entirely eliminated from the ward. The AsepticSure system was straightforward to use and quick, with complete room disinfection occurring in an hour. To prove to ourselves that the AsepticSure system was working, we performed cultures of 120 surfaces of the treated rooms before and after the AsepticSure system was used. The results were amazing. Virtual complete elimination of all bacteria on the room surfaces after AsepticSure was used in the rooms.'
'However, the longer-term effects were not fully appreciated until after a six-month follow up had been completed. Only then was it realised that not only had the rooms remained free of MRSA, but also no further cases of MRSA were noted on the ward during this period.'
Shannon said it was noteworthy that in addition to full room disinfection, all support equipment associated with each contaminated room was also disinfected using AsepticSure and this 'may have played an important role as well in virtually eliminating MRSA from the ward'.
'These mobile pieces of patient care equipment are notoriously hard to clean by hand. AsepticSure made disinfecting them very easy,' he said.
'Given that hospital acquired infections are now considered to be the fourth leading cause of death in both the US and Canada, this could be a game changer.'
