Smart Card Decontamination in a High-Containment Laboratory

The action of checking or proving the
validity or accuracy of something.

Validated procedures for decontamination of laboratory surfaces and equipment are essential to biosafety and biorisk programs at high-containment laboratories. Each high-containment laboratory contains a unique combination of surfaces, procedures, and biological agents that require decontamination methods tailored to specific facility practices. The Plum Island Animal Disease Center (PIADC) is a high-containment laboratory operating multiple biosafety level (BSL)-3, ABSL-3, and BSL-3 Ag spaces. The PIADC facility requires the use of federally issued smart cards, called personal identity verification (PIV) cards, to access information technology (IT) networks both outside and within the high-containment laboratory. Because PIV cards may require transit from the BSL-3 to office spaces, a validated procedure for disinfecting PIV card surfaces prior to removal from the laboratory is critical to ensure biosafety and biosecurity. Two high-risk select agents used in the PIADC high-containment laboratory are foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) and swine vesicular disease virus (SVDV). We evaluated disinfection of PIV cards intentionally spotted with FMDV and SVDV using a modified quantitative carrier test and the liquid chemical disinfectant Virkon® S. Our experimental design modeled a worst-case scenario of PIV card contamination and disinfection by combining high concentrations of virus dried with an organic soil load and use of aged Virkon® S prepared in hard water. Results showed that FMDV and SVDV dried on PIV card surfaces were completely inactivated after immersion for 30 and 60 seconds, respectively, in a 5-day-old solution of 1% Virkon® S. Therefore, this study provided internal validation of PIADC biosafety protocols by demonstrating the efficacy of Virkon® S to inactivate viruses on contaminated smart cards at short contact times.
REFERENCE:
Gabbert, Lindsay R. et al. “Smart Card Decontamination in a High-Containment Laboratory.” Health Security 16.4 (2018): 244–251. PMC. Web. 1 Oct. 2018.

-----------------------------------------------------------
Sigue este Blog en Facebook y Twitter
Ayúdanos a traducir las fichas de seguridad de microorganismos. www.seguridadbiologica.blogspot.com
-----------------------------------------------------------