Assessment of anti-bacterial activity of non-thermal plasma in sterilization of infectious wastes

Abstract

In today's world, the production of hospital wastes and their adverse effects such as infectious outbreaks and resistance to treatment is an important issue. Therefore, it's vital to find a new and efficient method to manage such wastes. In this study, the ability of dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) plasma to deactivate <em>Pseudomonas aeruginosa</em> and <em>Staphylococcus aureus</em> bacteria was assessed. The bacteria were treated with DBD plasma after cultivation in liquid milieu, and then dried in a sterile air stream. The results showed that for both bacteria, the number of deactivated colonies increased proportionally to the time of treatment. First, it occurred rapidly, and then the number of active colonies decreased at a slower speed. Also, increasing the plasma duty cycle in the same treatment time led to more deactivated colonies. This increase was more significant in the <em>Pseudomonas</em><em> aeruginosa</em> bacteria, and changes for <em>the Staphylococcus</em><em> aureus</em> was slight.