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skos:definition |
UMD: Equipment designed to kill or inactivate many microorganisms (e.g., fungi, viruses, bacteria) from instruments, containers, and other clinical devices and utensils, automatically or semiautomatically. These disinfectors typically kill many microorganisms including mycobacterium, all fungi, and small nonlipid viruses (providing low-level and medium-level disinfection); some disinfectors can also kill spore-forming bacteria (except when there is a large number) but not the spores, providing a high-disinfection level (near-sterile disinfection). This equipment typically uses temperature cycles of less than 100°C or immersion in sterilants for periods of time not sufficient to completely sterilize the devices. Disinfectors are used to inactivate microorganisms in medical devices when complete sterilization is not needed or justified. Dedicated disinfectors using vaporized germicidal (i.e., formalin, oxygen peroxide) solutions to disinfect closed containers are also available.
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