Source avec lien : International Journal of Infectious Diseases, (Prépublication). 10.1016/j.ijid.2022.08.012
L’utilisation des masques a augmenté ces dernières années en raison de la pandémie de COVID-19 qui a entraîné une pénurie de masques. De plus, leur utilisation prolongée provoque des problèmes de peau liés à la prolifération de bactéries. Pour surmonter ces problèmes, le plasma froid à pression atmosphérique (APCP) a été étudié comme une technologie alternative pour la désinfection des masques.
Objective : The mask usage has increased over the last years due to COVID-19 pandemic resulting in a mask shortage. Furthermore, their prolonged use causes skin problems related to bacteria overgrowth. To overcome those problems, atmospheric pressure cold plasma (APCP) was studied as an alternative technology for mask disinfection. Methods : Different microorganisms (Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus spp.) as well as different gases (nitrogen, argon and air), plasma power (90 – 300 W) and treatment times (45 s – 5 min) were tested. Results : The best APCP treatment was the one generated by nitrogen gas, at 300 W and 1.5 min. Breathing, filtering, microscopic and visual analysis after one and five plasma treatment cycles were tested, highlighting that neither reduction of functional capacity nor morphological modifications occurred on the masks. Conclusions : Considering the above, it is strongly believed that APCP could be an inexpensive, eco-friendly and sustainable technology for mask disinfection enabling their reusability and thus solving mask shortage.