Biomedicine: 2021; 41(2): 256-259 April – June 2021 DOI: https://doi.org/10.51248/.v41i2.792 Biomedicine- Vol. 41 No. 2: 2021 Research article Assessment of the routinely used surface disinfectants in hospital care settings by using different quantitative methods Praveen Kumar Prakasam 1 , Namrata K. Bhosale 2 , K. S. Seetha 3 1 MBBS Student, 2 Associate Professor, 3 Former Professor and Head, Department of Microbiology, Mahatma Gandhi Medical College & Research Institute, Sri Balaji Vidyapeeth (Deemed-to-be-University), Pillaiyarkuppam, Puducherry, 607 402, India (Received: July 2020 Revised: April 2021 Accepted: April 2021) Corresponding author: Namrata K. Bhosale. Email: namukb1234@gmail.com ABSTRACT Introduction and Aim: Disinfectants play a vital role in the prevention of nosocomial infections. A variety of disinfectants with different mechanism of action are available in the market. Most of the hospitals and health care centres select the disinfectants trusting the claims made by the manufacturers which may not be authentic. Materials and Methods: Plenty of standardised in-house disinfection testing methods are available but because of their complex procedure most of them are not feasible. Thus, in our study we employed a simple “quantitative suspension method” for testing the efficiency of the disinfectants. Commercially available disinfectants- Srivlon, Emplura, Hospal-OT, and NICE were tested against three nosocomial pathogens - Pseudomonas aeruginosa, MRSA, and Candida albicans. Results: In this study, the commercial disinfectants were acted effectively against all the three organisms. Hospal- OT had the maximum bactericidal activity followed by Srivlon disinfectant. Conclusion: Our study concluded that all the four commercial disinfectants were acted against the pathogens viz., Pseudomonas aeruginosa, MRSA and Candida albicans. Among four disinfectants, Srivlon needs a regular monitoring because of poor performance. Therefore, the proper usage of concentration and contact period of disinfectant will provide an efficient action against the pathogenic microbial population. Keywords: Disinfectant; nosocomial infections; hospital infection control; Candida albicans, Pseudomonas aeruginosa; MRSA. INTRODUCTION urface disinfectants is highly an integral part of the infection control measures which helps in preventing the spread of hospital acquired infections. It is mostly used in the surfaces of the tables, door handles, bed railings, medicine racks, trolleys, instruments, walls and floors in OPD, wards and operation theatres. Mechanism of disinfectants are mainly used to eliminates the pathogenic organisms on inanimate objects including bacterial spores (1, 2). Surface disinfectants are commonly used in hospitals which includes sodium hypochlorite, iodophors, quaternary ammonium and phenolic compounds. Different varieties of disinfectants are used in the hospital as well as environmental based on their effectiveness on the vegetative bacteria, fungus and deadly viruses (1). Numerous factors viz., pH, microbial load, exposure time and concentration of the disinfectants which affects its efficacy (2). Nowadays, many hospitals in our nation still they don’t have any prescribed protocol for testing the quality of the disinfectants (1). There are various standard methods have been developed to check the proficiency of disinfectant which includes viz., Rideal-Walker phenol coefficient (R.W.C) test (3), Chick-Martin and Garrod’s test, capacity use dilution test by Kelsey and Sykes, microbial time kill assays and Kesley and Maurer’s in-use tests (4-6). These tests have been classified as quantitative, semi-quantitative and qualitative, or alternative tests. Most of the tests used for testing disinfectants are rarely followed in hospitals because of their complex procedure (6). Carrier and Suspension tests are still used for testing the disinfectants using immersed in liquid culture to check the viability of the mixture (7, 8). Health care workers have lack of awareness by choosing a disinfectant because of the instructions provided by some of the local manufacturers which was not highly reliable on their products (8). The main aim of this study is to perform the ‘quantitative suspension method’ for testing the efficacy of disinfectants used in our health care centre. MATERIALS AND METHODS This was an analytic study conducted in the microbiology department of a tertiary care hospital. The study commenced only after obtaining the approval from the Institutional Human Ethics Committee (IHEC). The study was carried out for the period of two months, August to September 2016. The following disinfectants are tested with microorganisms: 1. Hospital-OT (1,6 Dihydroxy,2,5, Dioxyhexane, glutaraldehyde, benzalkonium chloride solution, alkyl urea derivative). Working solution made to 1%. S 256