EFFECT OF ULTRAVIOLET - C LIGHT IRRADIATION ON THE BIOBURDEN OF HOSPITAL CONTACT SURFACES

Microbial species replicate and propagate on every surface. Contact surfaces have become inevitable in hospitals as they are for convenience of staff and visitors. These hospital contact surfaces are microbial reservoirs, which play a leading role in the spread of nosocomial infections. Cleaning and disinfection of these surfaces deplete its bioburden, however, paucity of fund occasioned by lean healthcare budget has impacted on the continuous Cleaning and disinfection of these surfaces. We used a sterile swab moistened in normal saline to collect 600 samples in duplicate from various contact surfaces of 20 randomly selected hospitals before and after ultraviolet – c light irradiation. Standard microbiological assay were used to identify and characterize the isolated microbes. The mean of the pre-exposure bioburden in cfu/square swabbed surface was significantly higher than that of the post-exposure bioburden in cfu/square swabbed contact surface with (p ˂ 0.005). This result shows that ultraviolet – c light irradiation if effective in depleting the bioburden of hospital contact surfaces, we therefore, suggest the deployment of ultraviolet – c light irradiation in the integrated and continuous hospital contact surfaces disinfection regime.