The Efficacy of UV-C Disinfection in Decreasing Hospital-Acquired Infections and Bioburden in an Adult Burns Service

Burn patients are highly susceptible to hospital-acquired infections (HAIs), and contaminated near-patient surfaces can act as reservoirs for multidrug-resistant organisms (MROs). Ultraviolet-C (UV-C) room disinfection is increasingly used as an adjunct to manual cleaning, but real-world data in adult burns settings remain limited.

We evaluated adjunctive UV-C disinfection in a tertiary adult trauma and burns surgical ward using a two-part observational design. Part A compares MRO-related HAI incidence before UV-C implementation (12 May 2015-11 May 2020; retrospective) with its incidence after implementation (14 July 2020-13 July 2021; prospective). Part B is a matched pre/post environmental sampling study (December 2022-December 2024) of 44 vacant rooms. Paired swabs from a single randomised high-touch surface per room were collected immediately before and after UV-C disinfection and processed by an independent laboratory.

Part A included 7589 admissions (6415 before-UV-C; 1174 after-UV-C) with 2728 UV-C cycles delivered after implementation. MRO-related HAI incidence decreased from 18.3 to 10.2 per 1000 bed-days (p < 0.01). In Part B, the proportion of swabs with <10 CFU increased after UV-C disinfection (66% vs. 50%, p = 0.02). Among swabs with non-negligible baseline contamination and excluding increases, the median CFU reduction was 97% (SD 12%; p < 0.001), with no significant differences in reduction across sampled surface types.

In an adult burns surgical ward, adjunctive UV-C disinfection was associated with reduced MRO-related HAI incidence and a substantial reduction in environmental bioburden on high-touch surfaces. These real-world findings support UV-C as a feasible adjunct to standard cleaning in high-risk burn services and inform future controlled evaluations.