COVID-19: Prevention of Cross Infection in Diagnostic Ultrasound

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, our focus has been ensuring that we continue to deliver our products and services during a period of heightened demand and that we provide clear and concise advice to our customers regarding the level of protection our UVC-HLD systems offer against the virus.

Due to the swift spread of the pandemic, tests against this specific strain of Coronavirus have not yet been conducted by our manufacturer. We provide the following information as a guide, and look forward to updating you once testing has been conducted.

UVC-HLD and COVID-19

UV-C medical devices have proven effective against bacteria, mycobacteria and fungi, and viruses such as HPV, Poliomavirus, Enterovirus Polio, Adenovirus, Orthopoxvirus, Parvovirus and Herpes. UVC-HLD is also effective against SARS-COV.

Germitec laboratories have compared the various characteristics of organisms such as the polio virus and adenovirus with COVID-19 and have found that there is no unique structure or characteristic associated with COVID-19 that would suggest it has any greater resistance to disinfection that other coronaviruses.

While our UVC-HLD products have not been tested against COVID-19, EPA expects them to be effective based on UVC-HLD’s effiacy against harder-to-kills viruses and similar coronaviruses.

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Prevention of Pathogen Transmission during POCUS

Presenter: Dr Cartan Costello –MB BCH BAO, FCICM, FACRRM, FRACGP, BA Com, Grad Dip Crit Care Echo

Specific Recommendations from the USIG focus on 8 recommendations:

1. Ultrasound-guided procedures

2. Ultrasound machine and probe

3. Cost and Practicality

4. Use of sterile probe covers

5. Ultrasound gel

6. Documentation and traceability

7. Human Resources

8. COVID-19

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How to Integrate Scientific Evidence into Best Clinical Practice 

Presenter: Dr. David J. Weber, MD, MPH, FIDSA, FSHEA, FRSM

Learning Objectives:

• How to Integrate Scientific Evidence into Best Clinical Practice

• Assessing Scientific Evidence: Disinfectants and Disinfecting devices

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Further information and resources:

WHO – Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic

• WHO Latest News

• WHO Use of chest imaging in COVID-19

COVID-19 Position Statements and Guidelines

• World Federation for Ultrasound in Medicine and Biology Position Statement: How to Perform a Safe Ultrasound Examination and Clean Equipment in the Context of COVID-19

• WFUMB Provides Free Access to the following materials – Manual on prevention and treatment of COVID-19: Faced with an unknown virus, sharing and collaboration are the best remedy

• WFUMB Position Statement: How to perform a safe ultrasound examination and clean equipment in the context of COVID-19.

• Prevention of pathogen transmission during ultrasound use in the Intensive Care Unit: Recommendations from the College of Intensive Care Medicine Ultrasound Special Interest Group (USIG)

• Ultrasound Transducer and Equipment Cleaning and Disinfection. By UK FUSIC Committee on behalf of Intensive Care Society and endorsed by Society for Acute Medicine.

• ASUM Guidelines COVID-19 Infection prevention and control guidance for all ultrasound practitioners.

• ISUOG Safety Committee Position Statement: safe performance of obstetric and gynaecological scans and equipment cleaning in the context of COVID-19 Released 23 March 2020.

• Our Italian Experience Using Lung Ultrasound for Identification, Grading and Serial Follow‐up of Severity of Lung Involvement for Management of Patients with COVID‐19. Published on 1 April 2020 by Echocardiography. 

Research Papers

• What’s new in lung ultrasound during the COVID-19 pandemic

• COVID-19 pneumonia: different respiratory treatments for different phenotypes?

• Efforts to Attenuate the Spread of Infection (EASI): a prospective, observational multicentre survey of ultrasound equipment in Australian emergency departments and intensive care units.

UV-C Research Papers

• Evaluation of a new disinfection method for ultrasound probes used for regional anesthesia: ultraviolet C light

• UVC radiation as an effective disinfectant method to inactivate human papillomaviruses

• Evaluation of ultraviolet C for disinfection of endocavitary ultrasound transducers persistently contaminated despite probe covers

• Decontamination of Intravaginal Probes Infected by Human Papillomavirus (HPV) Using UV-C Decontamination System

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