Environmental Services

In recent years, bed bugs (Cimex lectularius) have been appearing more and more often in beds around the world, and entomologists need specimens for research purposes. Scientists in France have developed a tool that will aid this research, and their device is described in an article called "A High-Performance Vacuum Cleaner for Bed Bug Sampling: A Useful Tool for Medical Entomology" that was published in the Journal of Medical Entomology.

In 2009, healthcare leaders and experts began to focus more intensely on the risks associated with the improper processing (cleaning, disinfection and/or sterilization) of reusable medical devices and equipment. Within the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) hospital system, the Memphis VA Medical Center (MVAMC) and other facilities initiated corrective actions to fine tune reprocessing policies, particularly those related to critical and semi-critical devices, to ensure compliance with manufacturers’ instructions for use. Since then, ensuring adequate device reprocessing has continued to be a concern for regulators, providers and medical device manufacturers. Ongoing discussions have led to direction such as an FDA draft guidance document for device manufacturers (FDA, 2011), and a report from the medical device reprocessing summit hosted jointly by AAMI and FDA (AAMI, 2011).

Can a robot clean a hospital room just as well as a person? According to new research out of the Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine, that is indeed the case. Chetan Jinadatha, MD, MPH, assistant professor at the Texas A&M College of Medicine and chief of infectious diseases at the Central Texas Veterans Health Care System in Temple, is studying the effectiveness of a germ-zapping robot to clean hospital rooms, which could hold the key to preventing the spread of "superbugs" - in turn, saving countless dollars and, most importantly, lives.

This Report examines surface cleaning and disinfection in the face of emerging infectious disease and the pathogens that can challenge disinfectant efficacy. It reviews the hierarchy of pathogen resistance and susceptibility to disinfectants, discusses various factors that impact disinfectant efficacy, and addresses current pathogens of concern.