Autoclaving eliminates hepatitis C virus from a hemodialysis monitor contaminated artificially

Nosocomial transmission of the hepatitis C virus (HCV) has become the princ ipal cause of HCV infection in hemodialysis units. Because HCV particles ma y pass through dialysis membranes and backfiltration occurs with high perfo rmance membranes, HCV transmission from contaminated dialysis monitors is l ikely. Thus it is important to have effective measures to disinfect hemodia lysis 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 diff erent 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 ta ken from the drainage tube at 5 and 10 minutes. After perfusion, the dialys ate circuit was autoclaved at 120 degrees C for 20 minutes. Four samples we re then taken from the autoclaved circuits and another from the drainage, w hich had not been autoclaved. The viral titer in the samples from the drain age before sterilization was similar to that of the serum dilution, showing the homogeneous distribution of the serum dilution in the dialysis circuit s. After autoclaving, HCV RNA was not detectable in the samples obtained fr om the autoclaved circuits, whereas it was positive in the sample from the drainage. These results show that autoclaving is an effective method to eli minate HCV particles from contaminated hemodialysis monitors. J. Med. Virol . 60:139-143, 2000. (C) 2000 Wiley-Liss, Inc.