Autoclaving eliminates hepatitis C virus from a hemodialysis monitor contaminated artificially

Nosocomial transmission of the hepatitis C virus (HCV) has become the principal cause of HCV infection in hemodialysis units. Because HCV particles may pass through dialysis membranes and backfiltration occurs with high performance membranes, HCV transmission from contaminated dialysis monitors is likely. Thus it is important to have effective measures to disinfect hemodialysis monitors. In this study, autoclaving dialysate circuits were examined to establish an effective method to eliminate HCV particles from a monitor contaminated artificially. The dialysis monitor was contaminated in 2 different experiments with a 1/10 and 1/5 dilution of a serum pool containing 1.2 +/- 0.3 x 10(6) HCV genome copies/ml. During perfusion 2 samples were taken from the drainage tube at 5 and 10 minutes. After perfusion, the dialysate circuit was autoclaved at 120 degrees C for 20 minutes. Four samples were then taken from the autoclaved circuits and another from the drainage, which had not been autoclaved. The viral titer in the samples from the drainage before sterilization was similar to that of the serum dilution, showing the homogeneous distribution of the serum dilution in the dialysis circuits. After autoclaving, HCV RNA was not detectable in the samples obtained from the autoclaved circuits, whereas it was positive in the sample from the drainage. These results show that autoclaving is an effective method to eliminate HCV particles from contaminated hemodialysis monitors.