The antimicrobial effects of helium and helium–air plasma on Staphylococcus aureus and Clostridium difficile

Healthcare‐associated infections (HCAI) affect 5–10% of acute hospital admissions. Environmental decontamination is an important component of all strategies to prevent HCAI as many bacterial causes survive and persist in the environment, which serve as ongoing reservoirs of infection. Current approa...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Letters in applied microbiology 2013-08, Vol.57 (2), p.83-90
Main Authors: Galvin, S., Cahill, O., O'Connor, N., Cafolla, A.A., Daniels, S., Humphreys, H.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Air
Bacterial Load
biocides
Biological and medical sciences
Clostridium difficile
Clostridium difficile - drug effects
Clostridium difficile - physiology
Clostridium difficile - ultrastructure
Decontamination - methods
Disinfectants - pharmacology
disinfection
environmental
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Glass
Helium - pharmacology
Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus - drug effects
Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus - physiology
Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus - ultrastructure
microbial contamination
Microbial Viability
Microbiology
Microscopy, Atomic Force
Plasma Gases - pharmacology
Spores, Bacterial - drug effects
Staphylococcus aureus
Staphylococcus aureus - drug effects
Staphylococcus aureus - physiology
Staphylococcus aureus - ultrastructure
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Healthcare‐associated infections (HCAI) affect 5–10% of acute hospital admissions. Environmental decontamination is an important component of all strategies to prevent HCAI as many bacterial causes survive and persist in the environment, which serve as ongoing reservoirs of infection. Current approaches such as cleaning with detergents and the use of chemical disinfectant are suboptimal. We assessed the efficacy of helium and helium–air plasma in killing Staphylococcus aureus and Clostridium difficile on a glass surface and studied the impact on bacterial cells using atomic force microscopy (AFM). Both plasma types exhibited bactericidal effects on Staph. aureus (log3·6 – >log7), with increased activity against methicillin‐resistant strains, but had a negligible effect on Cl. difficile spores (
ISSN:0266-8254
1472-765X
DOI:10.1111/lam.12091