Imagine this – you are diagnosed with a serious but treatable medical condition that requires surgery and a hospital stay. While you are recovering in the ICU you add a new word to your vocabulary: nosocomial. This refers to the kind of infection you can get from being exposed to bacteria such as the usually harmless Acinetobacter baumannii in a hospital setting. It may start as a chronic problem around your catheter site and cause little or no symptoms.
If the germs make the jump to your bloodstream or respiratory system massive infection can set in quickly causing septicemia and/or pneumonia. It gets worse – with the meteoric rise of drug resistant bacteria in hospital settings you may not be curable. You could be dead within days.
A. baumannii has been around for a long time but is a relative newcomer to the multi-drug resistant field. The first serious cases were reported less than a decade ago. According to the CDC, the growing prevalence of this microbe in hospitals has a significant correlation with the use of certain antibiotics but no firm causal link has been verified.
Since medical establishments are reluctant to place restrictions on antibiotic use as a control measure, the only other option is to follow sensible protocols for disinfecting surfaces and equipment thoroughly. This requires the right machine for the job and the TANCS steam vapor system fits the bill.
How Does The TANCS Disinfecting Equipment Work?
This machine uses small quantities of heated tap water rather than harmful chemicals for cleaning. The vapor is low in moisture content but the heat is turned up very high. Since molecules move about faster and more furiously the hotter they get, the mixture of hot air and water effectively jiggles bacteria loose from their moorings. But there is an additional secret ingredient – nano crystals!
TANCS stands for thermo accelerated nano crystal sanitation (patent pending). According to the manufacturer (Advanced Vapor Technologies) the tiny mineral crystals naturally present in your tap water act to disrupt the cell membranes of microbes when superheated along with the vapor. So before you complain about the water in your area being too hard, realize there is something useful you can do with that mineral content!
Lab experiments at the Antimicrobial Test Laboratories location in Texas showed a treatment time of as little as 5 seconds was consistently effective at killing virtually 100% of the germs present on test surfaces. This even worked on porous surfaces which are resistant to treatment with bleach and other sterilizing agents. For the full story on these startling and encouraging test results, be sure to stop by LaboratoryTalk.
Advanced Vapor Technologies is a market leader in providing units for use in hospitals and schools where outbreaks of easily transmissible infections are rampant. If you are concerned about the cleanliness of your own home, you can also pick up a smaller model for less than $1500 USD.
You can use this equipment on most water safe household surfaces. Since the heated vapor cools and dries quickly after discharge the risk of burns with proper use is minimal (so please read the instructions). Hopefully as this disinfection method becomes more prevalent we will see a drop in disease outbreaks. Now, if you will excuse me, I think I will go wash my hands.