Vapor H2O2 sterilization as a decontamination method for the reuse of N95 respirators in the COVID-19 emergency

Ebru Oral; Keith K Wannomae; Rachel L Connolly; Joseph A Gardecki; Hui Min Leung; Orhun K Muratoglu; Anthony Griffiths; Anna N Honko; Laura E Avena; Lindsay GA McKay; Nick Flynn; Nadia Storm; Sierra N Downs; Ralph Jones; Brandon Emmal

The concentration and time of hydrogen peroxide exposure in both units tested here are designed for sterility assurance level of 10 -6 (6-log 10 reduction) with Geobacillus stearothermophilus spores. Typically, process validation using these spores for the application/load is done initially and at regular intervals for a system and verified with chemical indicators in each run. Both the LTS-V system and the ARD1000 setup used for viral infectivity studies were validated by bacterial spores. Thus, H 2 O 2 exposure under these conditions provided 6-log bioburden reduction of bacterial spores, which are the most resistant . CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license It is made available under a author/funder, who has granted medRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity.