Application of ozone in infection control and Prevention

Application of ozone in infection control and Prevention

A successful infection control program can not only help reduce mortality and incidence rate of medical institutions, but also be very cost-effective for medical institutions. Given that one third of hospital infections are preventable, prevention and control measures need to be a priority for any health care institution.

In order to fight against infection in health care institutions, comprehensive preventive measures are considered to be the most effective. These include good hygiene practices of health care workers, uncontaminated invasive medical equipment, treatment pool disinfection program, and continuous disinfection of rooms and equipment in the whole health care facility.

Disinfection refers to the use of chemical procedures to eliminate almost all recognized pathogenic microorganisms, but not necessarily all microbial forms on inanimate objects. Antibiotics such as iodine, chlorhexidine, 70% isopropanol solution and hexachlorobenzene are often used in hospitals and other health care institutions. Chlorhexidine and hexachlorophenol are active against many microorganisms, but they are less effective against gram negative bacteria.

Ozone is a powerful broad-spectrum antibacterial agent, which has been found to be effective against bacteria, fungi, viruses, protozoa, bacteria and fungal spores. The antibacterial effect of ozone is based on its strong oxidation, which damages the fatty acids in cell membrane.

A big problem with infection control is that certain strains of bacteria can actually develop resistance to certain chemical disinfectants. Ozone, on the other hand, kills bacteria in seconds through a process called cell lysis. Ozone molecules destroy cell membranes and disperse the cytoplasm of cells, making it impossible to revive them. Therefore, microorganisms can not produce ozone resistant strains, so there is no need to change fungicides regularly.

Because of such advantages, ozone technology is well combined with other disinfectants to prevent hospital infection.