Expanding the scope of UV-C

Ultraviolet-C (UV-C) technology is well established within healthcare as an adjunct tool for terminal room decontamination and surface disinfection. Over the past decade, its use has expanded across operating theatres, isolation rooms and other high-risk clinical environments, as part of a broader strategy to reduce healthcare-associated infections (HCAIs).

However, while episodic decontamination strategies have demonstrated value in reducing surface bioburden, they are inherently limited when faced with persistent and continuously active sources of contamination. Increasingly, infection prevention and control (IPC) teams are recognising that some of the most challenging contamination risks do not originate from visible surfaces, but from hidden environmental reservoirs that sit outside the traditional focus of cleaning and reprocessing protocols.

This article explores how the scope of UV-C based decontamination can be expanded beyond visible surfaces to address concealed environmental reservoirs, with particular emphasis on biofilm formation within clinical water systems. Using a real-world case study from Gentofte Hospital, Denmark, the article examines how recurrent contamination events associated with bronchoscopy prompted a reassessment of environmental risk factors and the implementation of a targeted UV-C based intervention within a sink drain. Clinical perspectives are included to illustrate how addressing these hidden reservoirs can complement established endoscope reprocessing and infection prevention strategies without increasing operational burden.