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Updated: Feb 13, 2026

Opsonophagocytic Killing Assay to Assess Immunological Responses Against Bacterial Pathogens
Published on: April 5, 2019
Ozone disinfection of home nebulizers effectively kills common cystic fibrosis bacterial pathogens
Dana Towle1, Vanisha Baker2, Craig Schramm3
1Veterans Affairs Hospital, Clinical Microbiology, West Haven, Connecticut.
Objective:
The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation (CFF) recommends routine nebulizer disinfection for patients but compliance is challenging due to the heavy burden of home care. SoClean® is a user friendly ozone based home disinfection device currently for home respiratory equipment. The objective of this study was to determine whether SoClean® has potential as a disinfection device for families with CF by killing CF associated bacteria without altering nebulizer output.
Hypothesis:
Ozone based disinfection effectively kills bacterial pathogens inoculated to home nebulizer equipment without gross changes in nebulizer function.
Study Design:
Common bacterial pathogens associated with CF were inoculated onto the PariLC® jet nebulizer and bacterial recovery compared with or without varied ozone exposure. In separate experiments, nebulizer output was estimated after repeated ozone exposure by weighing the nebulizer.
Results:
Ozone disinfection was time dependent with a 5 min infusion time and 120 min dwell time effectively killing >99.99% bacteria tested including Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus. Over 250 h of repeat ozone exposure did not alter nebulizer output. This suggests SoClean® has potential as a user-friendly disinfection technique for home respiratory equipment.
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