Decontamination (Bio Agents)

Contamination is the introduction of an infectious or chemical agent on a body surface, food or water, or other inanimate objects.

Decontamination involves either disinfection or sterilization to reduce microorganisms and chemical agents to an acceptable level on contaminated surfaces.

Disinfection is the selective reduction of undesirable microbes to a level below that required for transmission.

Sterilization is the killing of all organisms.

Decontamination methods have always played an important role in the control of infectious diseases. However, we are often unable use the most efficient means of rendering microbes harmless (e.g., toxic chemical sterilization), as these methods may injure people and damage materials which are to be decontaminated.

Biological and chemical agents can be decontaminated by mechanical, chemical and physical methods:

1. Mechanical decontamination involves measures to remove but not necessarily neutralize an agent. An example is the filtering of drinking water to remove certain water-borne pathogens; in a biowarfare context, mechanical contamination would be the use of an air filter to remove aerosolized anthrax spores, or water to wash agent from the skin.
2. Chemical decontamination renders biological and chemical agents harmless through liquid, gas or aerosol disinfectants. Some disinfectants are harmful to humans, animals, the environment, and materials.
3. Physical decontamination measures (heat, radiation) can be employed for decontamination of objects.
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