Post on 03.24.2020

High Level Disinfection (HLD) via Pasteurization – a possible solution to COVID-19 limited supplies

Science
Pasteurization has been used to destroy potentially pathogenic organisms in the food and beverage industry for decades. However, a medical device can also be pasteurized by fully immersing it in heated water for a specific amount of time at a specific temperature to achieve viral deactivation and microbial destruction. Global standards recommend that to achieve HLD, the process should apply, at minimum, a temperature of 65°C (ISO 15883). In the U.S., the amount of bioburden reduction required to achieve HLD is a 6-log reduction (which equates to a 99.9999% reduction) of the original population of organisms.

Solution
A full immersion pasteurization using a Cenorin™ 610 Washer-Pasteurizer/High Level Disinfector at a temperature of 72°C for 30 minutes has been shown to achieve HLD for typical medical devices used in respiratory care, anesthesia, pulmonary procedures, and sleep labs. In a recent study, a ‘worst-case’ (time and temp parameters) method was tested using a Cenorin™ 610 Washer-Pasteurizer/High Level Disinfector. The wash/pasteurization cycle achieved industry clean levels and a greater than 8-9 log reduction for Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli and a representative of the Klebsiella-Enterobacter group. The Pasteurization cycle also yielded a 7-log reduction of Mycobacterium Terrae.

Application
Cenorin customers use the Cenorin 610 to clean and disinfect many devices that are critical in today’s environment. These include oxygen administration masks and head bands, ventilator breathing circuits, ventilator inhalation/exhalation check valve assemblies, and corrugated tubing. A full listing of devices our customers have reprocessed can be found here. If there are additional devices, including PPE like masks and goggles, that you would like to have more information on, please reach out to us – we are available to help.