Efficacy of super-oxidized water fogging in environmental decontamination

SummaryThe efficacy of decontamination using Sterilox fog was assessed against meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and Acinetobacter baumannii. Ceramic tiles were inoculated with the test organisms and, once dried, were subjected to Sterilox fogging using a stationary vaporizing machine sited at a distance of 3 m for 10 min and then left for a further hour. In a second experiment using the same organisms, the first 10-min fogging period was followed by a directed fogging period of 30 s at a distance of 1 m. Organisms were cultured from the tiles, plated on to tryptone soya agar and incubated for 48 h. Initial counts of approximately 109 colony-forming units/mL for both organisms were reduced approximately 104 fold for MRSA and 105.8 fold for A. baumannii when using a single fogging. The second fogging resulted in 106.8-fold reductions for both organisms. Sterilox fog is safe and simple to use, and can reduce levels of nosocomial pathogens by a factor of almost 107. It is worthy of clinical evaluation in clinical settings to determine whether it maintains its microbicidal effects against a variety of organisms on different surfaces.