LONDON (Agence de Presse Medicale for Reuters Health) - The UK Department of Health has awarded 327,000 pounds (e481,000) to the Health Protection Agency to study the effectiveness of an ozone machine for deactivating prions on surgical instruments, the agency announced.
The 125L ozone sterilizer machine, developed by Canada’s TSO3 Inc, has already been cleared for commercialization by Health Canada and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
“The data from the preliminary tests conducted by TSO3 lead us to believe that the Ozone Sterilizer could be a significant part of the solution to the problem of variant CJD,” said Neil Raven, the agency’s research manager.
“The interest Britain is showing to our technology both confirms the need for a sterilization method that will deactivate prions and ozone’s potential for being one of the solutions,” said Simon Robitaille, vice president of TSO3.
The tests will be performed at the agency’s research centre at Porton Down, which has specialist microbiological containment facilities. Work is planned to begin later this year and is expected to take about 24 months, the agency added in a statement.
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