New UV-C-Reflective Wall Coating Reduces Disinfection Times for TRU-D Device

A recent study published in Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology (Rutala, et al., 2013) confirms the ability of a new UV-C-reflective wall coating to dramatically reduce the time necessary to decontaminate a room using the UV-C-emitting device TRU-D SmartUVC.

TRU-D, the signature product of Memphis-based Lumalier, is the only portable UV disinfection system on the market that precisely measures reflected UV-C emissions with Sensor360 to automatically calculate the pathogen-lethal UV dose required for proper and consistent disinfection of health care environments. Thanks to the device's patented technology and intuitive nature, TRU-D "sees" the reflective properties in the wall coating and automatically adjusts the cycle time to the appropriate dose of UV-C emission necessary to disinfect the room of harmful pathogens.

The study, which utilized a TRU-D device in a patient hospital room at University of North Carolina Clinical Translational Research Center in Chapel Hill, tested the difference in cycle time necessary to achieve microbial termination on 10 inoculated templates placed at various locations throughout the room before and after the room was coated with the new UVC360 Reflective Wall Coating from Lumacept. Rutala and his team concluded the following time reductions for decontamination: methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, from 25 minutes 13 seconds to five minutes three seconds, and Clostridium difficile spores, from 43 minutes 42 seconds to nine minutes 24 seconds.

"Because of TRU-D's Sensor360 technology, it is the only UV disinfection device that is able to react to the improved reflectivity of the wall coating, allowing for the precise measurement of necessary UV dose to be adjusted and therefore reduced" says Chuck Dunn, president of Lumalier, maker of TRU-D. "This is a new and highly valuable component for hospitals using TRU-D, as it allows a faster turnaround of patient areas without loss of confidence in complete terminal disinfection."

It has been previously reported that standard approaches to environmental cleaning have proven inadequate with studies showing that 50 percent or more of hospital surfaces go untouched during terminal room disinfection. It is also well-documented that these pathogens, and others such as vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus and carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae, can persist on environmental surfaces for days, weeks and even months. This can lead to the transmission of these hardy pathogens from one patient to another via the contaminated hands of health care personnel or environmental surfaces in patient areas. Previously published data has supported the use of TRU-D as a complement to a hospital's comprehensive cleaning and disinfection program for effective environmental disinfection in order to reduce these health care-associated infections.

According to the study, the wall coating is similar in appearance to a common interior latex paint and is applied as such (by brush, roller or spray), but it is formulated with inorganic oxides, polymer binders and functional additives with chemical structures that are minimally absorbent of UV-C, and therefore produce a much higher UV reflectivity (65 percent) versus standard paint, which has a low 3 percent to 7 percent UV reflectivity.

UVC360 Reflective Wall Coating from Lumacept will be featured in booth 1923 at the 40th annual APIC Conference in Fort Lauderdale.