Use of a mixture of surrogates for infectious bioagents in a standard approach to assessing disinfection of environmental surfaces

Abstract

We used a mixture of surrogates (Acinetobacter baumannii, Mycobacterium terrae, hepatitis A virus, and spores of Geobacillus stearothermophilus) for bioagents in a standardized approach to test environmental surface disinfectants. Each carrier containing 10 microl of mixture received 50 microl of a test chemical or saline at 22 +/- 2 degrees C. Disinfectant efficacy criteria were > or = 6 log(10) reduction for the bacteria and the spores and > or = 3 log(10) reduction for the virus. Peracetic acid (1,000 ppm) was effective in 5 min against the two bacteria and the spores but not against the virus. Chlorine dioxide (CD; 500 and 1,000 ppm) and domestic bleach (DB; 2,500, 3,500, and 5,000 ppm) were effective in 5 min, except for sporicidal activity, which needed 20 min of contact with either 1,000 ppm of CD or the two higher concentrations of DB.

FIG. 1.

Reductions of G. stearothermophilus spores by the test formulations after 20 min of contact, individually and in a mixture at 22 ± 2°C.