Title
Addressing personal protective equipment (PPE) decontamination: Methylene blue and light inactivates severe acute respiratory coronavirus virus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) on N95 respirators and medical masks with maintenance of integrity and fit
Date Issued
21 July 2022
Access level
open access
Resource Type
journal article
Author(s)
Lendvay T.S.
Chen J.
Harcourt B.H.
Scholte F.E.M.
Lin Y.L.
Kilinc-Balci F.S.
Lamb M.M.
Homdayjanakul K.
Cui Y.
Price A.
Heyne B.
Sahni J.
Kabra K.B.
Lin Y.C.
Evans D.
Page K.
Chu L.F.
Haubruge E.
Thiry E.
Ludwig-Begall L.F.
Wielick C.
Clark T.
Wagner T.
Timm E.
Gallagher T.
Faris P.
Macia N.
Mackie C.J.
Simmons S.M.
Reader S.
Malott R.
Hope K.
Davies J.M.
Tritsch S.R.
Dams L.
Nauwynck H.
Willaert J.F.
De Jaeger S.
Liao L.
Zhao M.
Laperre J.
Jolois O.
Smit S.J.
Patel A.N.
Mayo M.
Parker R.
Molloy-Simard V.
Lemyre J.L.
Chu S.
Conly J.M.
Chu M.C.
Milken Institute School of Public Health
Publisher(s)
Cambridge University Press
Abstract
Objective: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has resulted in shortages of personal protective equipment (PPE), underscoring the urgent need for simple, efficient, and inexpensive methods to decontaminate masks and respirators exposed to severe acute respiratory coronavirus virus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). We hypothesized that methylene blue (MB) photochemical treatment, which has various clinical applications, could decontaminate PPE contaminated with coronavirus. Design: The 2 arms of the study included (1) PPE inoculation with coronaviruses followed by MB with light (MBL) decontamination treatment and (2) PPE treatment with MBL for 5 cycles of decontamination to determine maintenance of PPE performance. Methods: MBL treatment was used to inactivate coronaviruses on 3 N95 filtering facepiece respirator (FFR) and 2 medical mask models. We inoculated FFR and medical mask materials with 3 coronaviruses, including SARS-CoV-2, and we treated them with 10 M MB and exposed them to 50,000 lux of white light or 12,500 lux of red light for 30 minutes. In parallel, integrity was assessed after 5 cycles of decontamination using multiple US and international test methods, and the process was compared with the FDA-authorized vaporized hydrogen peroxide plus ozone (VHP+O3) decontamination method. Results: Overall, MBL robustly and consistently inactivated all 3 coronaviruses with 99.8% to >99.9% virus inactivation across all FFRs and medical masks tested. FFR and medical mask integrity was maintained after 5 cycles of MBL treatment, whereas 1 FFR model failed after 5 cycles of VHP+O3. Conclusions: MBL treatment decontaminated respirators and masks by inactivating 3 tested coronaviruses without compromising integrity through 5 cycles of decontamination. MBL decontamination is effective, is low cost, and does not require specialized equipment, making it applicable in low- to high-resource settings.
Start page
876
End page
885
Volume
43
Issue
7
Language
English
OCDE Knowledge area
Políticas de salud, Servicios de salud Virología
Scopus EID
2-s2.0-85106764858
PubMed ID
Source
Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology
ISSN of the container
0899823X
DOI of the container
10.1017/ice.2021.230
Source funding
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
Pfizer
Alberta Health Services
University of Washington
Li Ka Shing Institute of Virology, University of Alberta
Sponsor(s)
Acknowledgments. We all thank the human fit-testing participants and the patients from whom the original SARS-CoV-2 specimens were obtained for the virology testing. M.C.C. thanks the contribution of the NIOSH National Personal Protective Technology Laboratory: Jonisha P. Pollard, Michael S. Bergman, Kevin Strickland, Rebecca Streeter, Christian C. Coby, Nichole Suhon, and Jeremy J. Brannen. B.H.H. and M.C.C. acknowledge the biomedical engineering hackathon group through Cassandra Howard and the lightboxes built by the Colorado State University Biomedical team, Dr. Jorge Rocca and Han Chi. D.E. thanks Megan Desaulniers and Dr. Dan Dragon for BSL3 operations at the University of Alberta. J.M.C. acknowledges the assistance of Johanna Blaak and Michelle Wright of the W21C Research and Innovation Centre, University of Calgary for consultation on methodology and for project management, respectively, Jeanette Adams and Rhea Campbell of Alberta Health Services for conducting the human fit testing, and David Silverstone from Alberta Health Services for oversight and management. The Stanford AIM lab gratefully acknowledges the contributions of our Stanford Science, Technology and Medicine Research Interns in the development of the fit questionnaire assessment and the human fit volunteer participants. E.T. thanks Amélie Matton, Murielle Perrin, and Frédéric de Meulemeester (AMB Ecosteryl, Mons, Belgium), for suggestions and technical and administrative support and thanks Chantal Vanmaercke and Carine Boone for their excellent technical support. M.C.C. thanks Mary Moua for administrative support. T.S.L. acknowledges the support of Drs Danielle Zerr, Ruth MacDonald, and Paul Merguerian at Seattle Children’s Hospital. F.S.K.B. and Y.L.L. acknowledge the donation of masks and respirators from the WHO, 3M, and Halyard, as well as the guidance from the WHO Clinical Diagnostics Group (CDG) and the Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) group. The findings and conclusions in this report are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Financial support. This work was supported by an Amazon Catalyst Award through the University of Washington (to T.S.L.); an Anonymous Donor to the Department of Urology, University of Washington (to T.S.L.); Open Philanthropy (to M.C.C.), Alberta Health Services (to J.C. and D.E.), and The Li Ka Shing Institute of Virology (to D.E. and J.C.).
Sources of information: Directorio de Producción Científica Scopus