{
  "id": 3898670,
  "title": "Defining Operational UV-C Dose Requirements for Autonomous Disinfection of Clinically Relevant Pathogens Across Healthcare and High-Touch Surfaces",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/27/defining-operational-uv-c-dose-requirements-for-autonomous",
  "topic": "health",
  "section": "Health & Medicine",
  "published": "2026-08-27T00:00:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "bioRxiv",
    "slug": "biorxiv",
    "url": "https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.08.24.746724v1?rss=1"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Autonomous ultraviolet-C (UV-C) disinfection systems are becoming more common to help with manual surface cleaning, but there is still a lack of evidence-based guidance on the specific UV-C dose requirements needed to effectively target various pathogens across different surfaces in healthcare settings. The aim of this study was to investigate the operational UV-C dose requirements for a range of clinically relevant pathogens on various high-touch healthcare materials and stainless steel under controlled conditions.\n\nThe researchers exposed SARS-CoV-2, adenovirus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Enterococcus faecalis, Candida auris, and Clostridioides difficile spores to specific UV-C doses on representative materials. They measured the viable recovery of these microbes using recovery methods. They then performed dose-response analysis and used the data to create operational models.\n\nThe study found that UV-C exposure significantly reduced the viable counts of all tested pathogens. However, there were differences in the exposure conditions required for inactivation. SARS-CoV-2 showed substantial inactivation at doses as low as 2.6 mJ/cm2, while the highest evaluated doses required for C. difficile spores and C. auris were 1,800 mJ/cm2 and 3,600 mJ/cm2, respectively. For C. auris, multi-dose data suggested that around 1,410 mJ/cm2 was needed for a 2-log10 reduction, which could be used to estimate exposure times based on the distance from the UV-C source.\n\nIn conclusion, the researchers demonstrated that experimentally determined UV-C exposures can effectively reduce microbial loads on diverse surfaces across different pathogen types. By linking the delivered dose to microbial reductions, this study provides a quantitative approach to convert laboratory efficacy into operational parameters for autonomous UV-C disinfection systems in healthcare environments.",
  "summary": "Background: Autonomous ultraviolet-C (UV-C) disinfection systems are increasingly used to supplement manual environmental cleaning, yet evidence-based guidance defining pathogen-specific UV-C dose requirements across representative surfaces remains limited. Aim: To characterize operational UV-C dose requirements for clinically relevant pathogens across diverse high-touch and healthcare surfaces…",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}