disinfection

On the fact that cleanliness and disinfection contributes significantly to the prevention of diseases, was already pointed out in the Old Testament, the practical implementation of this knowledge, however, has only established itself in the western industrial nations since the late 19th century. Before that, not only private households, but v. a. also hospitals, places where people often died due to preventable infectious diseases. Disinfection is an essential means of preventing the spread of pathogens.

What is disinfection?

In the last 200 years, the number of infectious diseases has decreased massively and infections are now one of the less common causes of death.

In addition to the general increase in cleanliness, v. a. the disinfection significantly involved in this success. Disinfection is a special measure that serves to kill viruses, germs, bacteria, spores and fungi that are on an object or living tissue, or at least to make them inactive, and thus to drastically reduce their number or their activity so that the risk of an infectious disease outbreak in humans and animals becomes less likely.

In order to achieve this antiseptic (i.e. sterile) state, chemical and physical methods of disinfection are used.

Medical application, effects, goals

When using measures too disinfection A distinction must be made between private households and a medical environment, because problems with disinfectants can also arise.

Disinfectants should not be used habitually in private households. The substances available over the counter in supermarkets and drugstores are usually not strong enough and are not always used properly (e.g. due to insufficient exposure time), so that, without the users being aware of it, a selection of particularly resistant virus and bacterial strains can occur and these will be more and more difficult to control in the future.

Another problem with the private use of disinfectants is that the constant use of the acidic protective skin coat, which actually has the task of protecting the skin from the penetration of pathogens, is destroyed. Since private households do not have adequate disposal mechanisms for disinfectant liquids, substances that are harmful to the environment end up in the sewage treatment plants and disturb the delicate balance of those types of bacteria that are used for water treatment.

So that disinfectants do not lead to lasting damage to the skin and the environment as well as the cultivation of antibiotic-resistant germs, disinfectants should primarily be used by trained personnel and only in a strategic manner. The cleaning of private households should therefore not aim at disinfection, but rather at minimizing microorganisms to a number that is harmless to healthy people.

Shapes, types & types

There are different means and procedures to get that disinfection of objects and living tissues. In the medical, pharmaceutical, water treatment and food sectors, this includes physical processes (e.g. air removal with the aim of creating a sterile vacuum, incineration, boiling or steaming with at least 100 ° C hot water, irradiation with UV light, filtering out pathogens and radioactive radiation) as well as the use of chemical agents to disinfect hands, laundry, rooms, surfaces and medical instruments.

Chemical agents include a. Alcohol, silver, mercury, ammonium salt, surfactants, peroxyacetic acid, iodine, chlorine, hydrogen peroxide and formaldehyde.

The means and procedures mentioned have three main objectives:

1. Damage to the outer cell membrane of the pathogen by leaching out certain lipids (fats).

2. The damage to the spatial structure of their proteins.

3. The destruction of the genetic material by attacking your nucleic acids.

In addition to normal household detergents based on surfactants, so-called “natural” disinfectants such as alcohol, salt water, vinegar essence, citric acid and tea tree oil are suitable for use in the household.

Risks, dangers & side effects of failure

Although compared with previous eras in which disinfection was unknown, the number of infectious diseases has decreased significantly overall, in Germany alone between 7,500 and 15,000 patients still die each year from infections they contracted in hospital.

Every year between 400,000 and 600,000 patients develop infections in connection with a medical intervention. So the question arises as to how these numbers can be reduced and whether adequate hygiene measures are planned and also adhered to. Experts suspect that up to a third of these infections could be prevented by adhering to hygiene rules.

A particular problem, especially in German hospitals, is that resistant pathogens encounter patients with a weakened immune system. This fact leads to longer hospital stays on average, higher treatment costs and higher death rates than in neighboring countries.

However, resistant pathogens are increasing in number. The reasons for this are still improper prescription and use of antibiotics, both in outpatient and inpatient settings, whereby the pathogens are selected and grown unintentionally, and a lack of disinfection, which means that the pathogens are spread.