Fig. 4
Steam disinfection eliminates low-level environmental contamination from nebulizer parts. A PARI LC SPRINT Nebulizer handset was handled under standard laboratory conditions without deliberate bacterial inoculation to simulate real-world environmental exposure. (A) Replica plating of the nebulizer body (upper/lower parts, mouthpiece as in Fig. 3) before steam treatment, and (B) plating of swabs from the inner and outer surfaces of the connection tubing (as in Fig. 3) prior disinfection yielded only few CFUs. After 1-min steam disinfection, no visible colony growth was observed on either replica-plated (C) or swab-streaked (D) plates. Plating was performed on LB agar and the plates were incubated overnight at 37 °C. Experiments were performed in triplicate (n = 3).
