Cleanzine: your weekly cleaning and hygiene industry newsletter 25th April 2024 Issue no. 1111
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Medline announces first infection control product EPA-registered to kill emerging pathogen
Hospitals and clinics now have a tool to combat Candida Auris, a multidrug-resistant fungus that can cause serious infections in hospitalised patients. Medline announced that the US Environmental Protection Agency has cleared its Micro-Kill bleach germicidal bleach wipes to be marketed as killing the fungus on hard, non-porous surfaces.
The fungus, which has a mortality rate of 35%, has been shown to linger in healthcare facilities despite efforts to eradicate it with traditional disinfectants. It can be difficult to treat and has caused outbreaks worldwide.
Medline's Micro-Kill bleach germicidal bleach wipes are said to be the first infection control product EPA-registered to kill Candida auris. The announcement solidifies the product's place in Medline's portfolio of infection prevention strategies and products.
"Candida auris has emerged as a new and alarming threat, and until now healthcare providers and environmental staff had no proven tools to combat it," says Rosie D. Lyles, MD, director of clinical affairs at Medline. "What we've shown with the wipes is an effective way to disinfect hospital surfaces, where C. auris tends to be persistent in the environment.
"Our goal is to take a proactive approach to combating this pathogen.
"Through the collective work of Medline's infection prevention team, we've developed a way to effectively reduce cross contamination of C. auris using Micro-Kill bleach and proper hand hygiene."
Medline is the first to bring to market a product approved to kill C. auris due to the long-term planning of a team of professionals across different Medline divisions dedicated to improving healthcare infection prevention and minimising the spread of infectious diseases.
Megan Henken, director of product management, Medline Textiles division, explains further:
"As an infection-prevention solutions provider, we are dedicated to staying on top of emerging pathogens and epidemiology trends. We identified C. auris as a potential threat more than two years ago after a handful of cases started to surface. At that time, the EPA had not yet developed a method to test the pathogen. We closely monitored the progress on the EPA testing methods so that as soon as it was made available, we were one of the first in line to get our Micro-Kill Bleach wipes tested."
After years of development and rigorous testing, the wipes can now be used as part of infection prevention-informed room turnovers and nurses can use them on medical equipment and high-touch surfaces.
This announcement is just the latest development in Medline's comprehensive infection prevention approach. Combining hand hygiene, decolonisation and environmental cleaning with products like Micro-Kill beach germicidal bleach wipes, Medline helps hospitals, long-term care facilities and other clinics across the country keep their patients and caregivers safe. The Erase Pathogens program combines all these elements into a holistic program that helps reduce costly and dangerous hospital-acquired and surgical-site infections.
20th June 2019