A NEW OZONE-BASED METHOD FOR VIRUS INACTIVATION - PRELIMINARY-STUDY

The nebulization technique reported here could be used to inactivate v iruses with ozone in large volumes of body fluids, such as plasma, par tial blood and perhaps whole blood in a short time. Coliphage MS2 was used as a model because it is safe, easy to handle and more resistant to chemical disinfections than viruses such as HIV. The theoretical cu rves and experimental points, describing ozone inactivation of MS2, fo rm a semi-sigmoid of congruent data. There was a >7log(10) reduction i n MS2 viability and the possibilities of minimizing the ozone concentr ation required to kill viruses are indicated. The analysis was expande d to account for the interaction of ozone with a virus suspension in t he shape of a thin film from the experimental findings of Bolton ei al . We again find a semi-sigmoid of congruent data for their case, i.e. describing ozone inactivation of the influenza A virus (WSN strain) an d the vesicular stomatitis Virus versus time. For the method of nebuli zation, the exposure time of droplets with ozone is a few seconds, whe reas for the thin film method the exposure time is measured in hours.