Decontamination in the COVID era

Since the first case of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) emerged in China, many millions of people have been infected in countries as distant as the United States, United Kingdom, Brazil, India and the Russian Federation, exemplifying the global nature of this pandemic. The rapid increase in cases had led to major challenges for the health sectors globally including shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE) supplies, emergence of co-infections in COVID-19 positive patients, and the increased use of biocides to constantly clean surfaces and equipment – which may degrade these surfaces and form surface fractures and cracks allowing them to be re-contaminated.

PPE decontamination using HPV and UV-C light

PPE for healthcare workers is a key component of infection prevention and control; ensuring that healthcare workers are protected means more effective containment for all. However, a major demand shock triggered by healthcare system needs, as well as panicked marketplace behaviour, depleted PPE inventories and that led to major disruptions to the PPE global supply chain, therefore causing a sharp reduction in PPE exported to the UK and the US, which were already highly dependent on internationally-sourced PPE.