TY - JOUR T1 - Ozone Treatment for Elimination of Bacteria in Medical Environments JF - bioRxiv DO - 10.1101/420737 SP - 420737 AU - Craig Westover AU - Savljaton Rahmatulloev AU - David Danko AU - Niamh B. O’Hara AU - Rachid Ounit AU - Daniela Bezdan AU - Ebrahim Afshinnekoo AU - Christopher E. Mason Y1 - 2018/01/01 UR - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2018/09/18/420737.abstract N2 - Pathogenic bacteria in medical environments can lead to treatment complications and hospital acquired infections (HAIs), and current cleaning protocols do not address hard-to-access areas or that may be beyond line-of-sight treatment such as with ultraviolet radiation. Here, we tested the efficacy of Sanisport ozone as a means to treat hospital equipment and surfaces for killing bacteria. We observed a rapid killing of medically-relevant and environmental bacteria (Escherichia coli, Enterococcus faecalis, Bacillus subtlis, and Deinococcus radiodurans) across four surfaces (blankets, catheter, remotes, and syringes) within 30 minutes, and up to a 99% reduction in viable bacteria at the end of 2-hour treatment cycles. These results show the strong promise of ozone treatment for reducing risk of infection and HAIs. ER -