Post by The Water Institute at UNC

🔬 Exciting new research from our team at the Water Institute at UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health! Healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) remain a serious global burden, driven in part by drug-resistant "ESKAPEE" pathogens – Enterococcus faecium, Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Acinetobacter baumannii, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Enterobacter spp., and Escherichia coli – bacteria that are notoriously difficult to eliminate from hospital environments using traditional disinfectant methods and are increasingly resistant to antibiotics. The newly published study protocol introduces a multi-site, double-blinded randomized controlled trial testing far-UVC light as a disinfection tool in two hospitals in La Paz, Bolivia with high burdens of ESKAPEE pathogens. Unlike conventional UV disinfection, far-UVC can inactivate pathogens in air and on surfaces while remaining safe for use in occupied spaces. The clustered RCT will compare intervention rooms equipped with far-UVC lamps against control rooms with lamps without far-UVC capability, measuring pathogen presence via culture and sequencing over time. Authors hypothesize that far-UVC will meaningfully reduce ESKAPEE pathogen prevalence on surfaces. This is a critical step toward evidence-based infection prevention tools that can work where we need them most: in resource-limited settings facing the highest infectious disease burden. Read the full protocol here 👉 https://lnkd.in/eTHCZBqH 👏 👏 Congratulations to the researchers and authors: Lindsay Saber, MPH, Melani Rojas, Darcy Anderson, Deverick Anderson, Holger Claus, Ryan Cronk, Karl Linden, PhD, Megan Lott, Lewis Radonovich Jr., Bobby Warren, MPS, Richard Williamson, Richard Vincent, Sergio Gutierrez Cortez, Carla Calderon Toledo, and Joe Brown! #InfectionPrevention #PublicHealth #FarUVC #HAI #GlobalHealth #UNCGillings