The use of germicidal ultraviolet light, vaporised hydrogen peroxide and dry heat to decontaminate face masks and filtering respirators contaminated with an infectious norovirus

Constance Wielick; Louisa F Ludwig-Begall; Lorène Dams; Ravo M Razafimahefa; Pierre-Francois Demeuldre; Aurore Napp; Jan Laperre; Olivier Jolois; Frédéric Farnir; Eric Haubruge; Etienne Thiry

doi:10.1016/j.infpip.2020.100111

The use of germicidal ultraviolet light, vaporised hydrogen peroxide and dry heat to decontaminate face masks and filtering respirators contaminated with an infectious norovirus

Infect Prev Pract. 2021 Mar;3(1):100111. doi: 10.1016/j.infpip.2020.100111. Epub 2020 Dec 28.

Affiliations

¹ Veterinary Virology and Animal Viral Diseases, Department of Infectious and Parasitic Diseases, FARAH Research Centre, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium.
² Department of Hospital Pharmacy, The University Hospital Center, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium.
³ Centexbel Textile Research Centre, Grace-Hollogne, Belgium.
⁴ Biostatistics and Bioinformatics Applied to Veterinary Science, FARAH Research Centre, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium.
⁵ TERRA Research Centre, Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech, University of Liège, Gembloux, Belgium.

Abstract

In the context of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, reuse of surgical masks and filtering facepiece respirators has been recommended. Their reuse necessitates procedures to inactivate contaminating human respiratory and oral pathogens. We previously demonstrated decontamination of masks and respirators contaminated with an infectious SARS-CoV-2 surrogate via ultraviolet germicidal irradiation, vaporised hydrogen peroxide, and use of dry heat. Here, we show that these same methods efficiently inactivate a more resistant, non-enveloped oral virus; decontamination of infectious murine norovirus-contaminated masks and respirators reduced viral titres by over four orders of magnitude on mask or respirator coupons.

Keywords: Decontamination (UV, H2O2, dry heat); FFR, filtering facepiece respirator; MuNoV, murine norovirus; SARS-CoV-2, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2; SM, surgical mask; norovirus; respirator; surgical mask.