Biofilms and Antimicrobial Resistance in Healthcare: Evaluating Chlorine Dioxide as a Candidate to Protect Patient Safety.

Healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) caused by the transmission of multi drug resistant organisms (MDROs) from contaminated surfaces are a major challenge for healthcare organisations. The presence of biofilm on surfaces makes effective environmental decontamination difficult to achieve and exacerbates antimicrobial resistance (AMR). In this study the performance of various chlorine dioxide-based disinfectants against a panel of MDROs, and biofilms formed by Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus, was evaluated. All chlorine dioxide-based disinfectants tested demonstrated sufficient activity against MDROs meeting the relevant test standards and exhibited similar log reductions against organisms within the biofilm model. Sufficient log reductions when tested to the appropriate test standards in realistic contact times against planktonic MDROs, and comparable reductions against biofilms suggest chlorine dioxide is an attractive candidate for environmental decontamination strategies.