Evaluation of Quaternary Ammonium Compounds Based Disinfectants Using European Standards to Combat Microbial Infections

Abstract

Hospital-acquired infections (HAIs) or healthcare associated infections are the newlineinfections a patient or his/her associate gets during his/her stay in the hospital facility newlineor any other medical clinic. The HAIs are more problematic in developing countries newlinelike India where HAIs rates are highly significant. As per World Health Organization newline(WHO) report, approximately fifteen percent (15%) of total patients admitted to newlinehospitals worldwide suffer from HAIs. Disinfection and sterilization are the most newlinepossible solution to control these infections. Out of available disinfectants, Quaternary newlineammonium compounds (QACs) based disinfectants are widely used due to their newlineadvantageous characteristics. To increase the antimicrobial spectrum of the QACs newlinedisinfectant, currently different generations of QACs disinfectants have been newlinesynthesized. It is vital to cast a glance at the antimicrobial spectrum of different newlinedisinfectants. For efficacy testing traditional methods such as the standard plate count newlinemethod, suspension tests, glass slide method, Phenol coefficient method (FDA newlinemethod), Kelsey Sykes method and dilution method have been employed, however, newlinediscrepancies with the reproducibility of test results have questioned the authenticity newlineof these methods. It can be understood that the use of inefficient disinfectants will newlinefurther increase the incidence of HAIs. Further irrational use of both higher and lower newlinegeneration disinfectants will lead to the emergence of microbial resistance toward the newlinedisinfectants. Therefore the use of internationally proven standard methods is of newlineutmost importance to verify the antimicrobial spectrum of different generation QACs. newline