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Market
Research
…protect
you and your patients more effectively
from viral and bacterial
infection.
Sterilizer biological monitoring, also known
as spore testing, alerts professionals dependent on sterilization
as a core element in client and staff infection control protocols
to failures in their sterilization equipment and/or procedures.
Recognized as the definitive way to demonstrate sterilizer
effectiveness by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
(CDC), the American Dental Association (ADA) and the Association
for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation (AAMI), several
states now require, or strongly recommend, weekly spore testing
for medical and dental offices.
World wide, the number of viral infections
such as hepatitis, herpes, HIV, etc. are increasing daily.
You, your staff and your patients are increasingly exposed
to higher infection risks through:
1. Contact with infections
from direct exposure to the mouth, blood or saliva of patients.
2. The spread of infections through cross contamination via
hands, instruments or other commonly used materials.
3. Direct site infections
due to accidental cutting or punctures with non-sterile instruments.
Most sterilization failures occur due
to errors by the sterilizer operator, e.g. overloading the
sterilizer. The gauges and printers on the sterilizer may indicate
that the sterilizer had successfully met all physical parameters,
i.e. temperature, pressure and time. There is however, no
indication that a particular valve or air release nozzle may
have been blocked. This can lead to the formation of “cool
spots” in
the sterilization chamber resulting in sterilization failure.
An overloaded sterilizer is very often the cause of sterilization
failure, in addition to interruptions of the sterilization
cycle during momentary power serge or failure.
Following the introduction of a regular
spore testing program, a scientific study showed that with
sterilizers routinely monitored using biological indicators,
failures declined. The incidence of sterilization failure
fell from 8.5% to 1.3%. Regular sterilization testing can also
reduce to a minimum the risks of sterilization failure in your
practice.
Blood-borne pathogens are pathogenic microorganisms
that are present in human blood and can cause disease in humans.
Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and hepatitis B (HBV) are
both dangerous blood-borne pathogens. According to the CDC,
more than 45,000 people were diagnosed with full-blown AIDS
last year alone, while there were an estimated 1-1.25 million
Americans infected with HBV.
Healthcare workers are on the CDC’s
list of high-risk groups for exposure to infectious disease.
This risk may be greatly reduced with the use of universal
precautions and effective sterilization procedures. The
CDC emphasizes the importance of adhering to universal
precautions that require that the blood and other bodily
fluids of all patients be handled as biohazards. This is
especially important due to the fact that a patient may
show no outward signs or symptoms that allow positive identification
of these illnesses. In addition to exercising universal
precautions and other methods of infection control, all
healthcare workers who might be exposed to blood in an
occupational setting should receive a hepatitis B vaccination,
preferably during their period of professional training
and before any occupational exposures could occur.
Compliance with universal precautions and recommendations
for disinfection and sterilization of medical devices should
be scrupulously monitored in all healthcare settings. Proper
application of these principles will assist in minimizing the
risks of transmission of infection from patient to healthcare
worker, healthcare worker to patient, or patient-to-patient
contact.
Medical offices that rely solely on disinfection
are more at risk to exposure of infectious disease than those
who sterilize their equipment after use. There is a significant
difference between disinfection and sterilization. Sterilization
is the process of destroying all forms of microbial life including
infectious bacteria, viruses, yeasts, molds and bacterial
spores. Disinfection is the process of destroying disease-causing
microorganisms, but cannot insure the destruction of bacterial
spores. For additional information on the different methods
of sterilization available today, please feel free to contact
us.
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