Disinfectant Effectiveness

Question 1

What are antimicrobial agents (broadest sense)?

Answer 1

• destroy microorganisms or inhibit their ability to reproduce
  
  • some are chemical in nature (medications)
  • some are physical (heat, radiation)

Question 2

What are antimicrobial medications

Answer 2

-chemical compounds which specifically target the vital processes and structures in microorganisms

Question 3

Define disinfection

Answer 3

• process of destroying microorganisms outside of the contest of an infection

Question 4

What is a disinfectant?

Answer 4

-chemicals that applied to surfaces, inanimate objects, or liquids in order to destroy microorganisms

Question 5

Define sterility

Answer 5

-complete absence of microorganisms

Question 6

What is the most durable microorganism structure?

Answer 6

Bacterial endospores

Question 7

Define sporicidal

Answer 7

-A disinfection strategy’s ability to destroy bacterial endospores

Question 8

Define sterilant (sterilizing agent)

Answer 8

-disinfection strategy that is able to reliably destroy all microorganisms in a real world context

Question 9

What are 5 different disinfectants and what are the microbes they destroy?

Answer 9

1) Sporicidal: Bacterial endospores
2) Bactericidal: vegetative bacterial cells
3) Fungicidal: Kills fungal cells
4) Virucidal: inactivates virus particles
5) protozoacidal: protozoan cells

Question 10

What must a chemical be able to do to be considered a disinfectant ?

Answer 10

-must be able to kill at least one class of microorganism

Question 11

What does the suffix ‘static’ mean in a disinfectant?

Answer 11

-number of cells will not increase due to inhibited reproduction, but disinfectant would not destroy the cells either

Question 12

What are preservatives?

Answer 12

• chemical agents which only have static effects

- useful for preventing the growth of microorganisms in food and cosmetics

Question 13

What is an antiseptic

Answer 13

-relatively mild disinfectant chemicals which can be safely applied to external human tissues

Question 14

What is the ‘mechanism of action’ of a disinfectant

Answer 14

• refers to the specific chemical effect the disinfectant has upon the structure of a microorganism
  
  • membranes, proteins, nucleic acids

Question 15

What is the decimal reduction time (DRT)?

Answer 15

-the amount of time it takes a disinfectant strategy to kill 90% of a microorganism population