The Sunlight Air Disinfection Unit (AD) and
H1N1 Swine Flu

The AD will kill airborne influenza viruses including H1N1 in rooms and other enclosed spaces, in the same way but at a higher rate than they are killed in the open air.

Using the AD will mean that enclosed rooms, the areas of highest risk, become at least as safe as the open air.

The machine has been tested by the Health Protection Agency’s Porton Down bio-safety laboratories against the standard surrogate* that is used for all viral tests. Where the test chamber is filled with the surrogate organism, more than 99.99% are killed in less than 45 minutes.

Developed by Inov8 Science, and distributed by Sunlight, the AD is a recent winner of the NHS programme Smart Solutions for Healthcare Associated Infections and, by results achieved when used within NHS hospitals, has already proved its effectiveness against airborne infection.

The AD has been in continuous use for approximately 18 months in acute c.diff wards and in Care of the Elderly wards in the Royal Hospital, Sunderland. Over that period there has been a dramatic reduction in c.diff cases in the wards where the AD is used and the Consultant Microbiologist of the Hospital has observed that the acute c.diff ward has, for more than 95% of the time, had lower bacterial counts than are found in an operating theatre. Hereford General Hospital has used the AD extensively and continually to stem and control noro-virus outbreaks with a very satisfactory success rate.

For more information on the Sunlight Air Disinfection Unit contact:

Sunlight Clinical Solutions
Tel: 01443 471345
E-mail: scs@sunlight.co.uk
Web: www.sunlightclinicalsolutions.com

*A surrogate is used because producing viruses in large enough quantities to do meaningful tests is extremely difficult and expensive; viruses only reproduce in living tissue so their production is slow and difficult. The surrogate that is used is the MS2 coliphage which is in all respects similar, but tougher, than the virus but can be grown as rapidly as bacteria.
The tests conducted at Porton Down can be found on the Inov8 science web site (www. Inov8science.com)

Examples of the use of MS2 as a surrogate can be found in:
• American Journal of infection Control, volume 35, issue 5, E36 - E37,
S Bourget et al
• Environmental Science Technology Journal, 2007, 41 PP 5460-5465 Christopher Walker et al, University of Texas
• Journal of Applied Microbiology, Volume 145 issue 5 1477-1483,
J Fitzgibbon, National Institute of Health, J-L Sagripanti, US Army Chemical Biological Research Centre.