Abstract
Hospital acquired infections (HAIs) are a serious problem that potentially affects millions of patients whenever in contact with hospital settings. Worsening the panorama is the emergence of antimicrobial resistance by most microorganisms implicated in HAIs. Therefore, the improvement of the actual surveillance methods and the discovery of alternative approaches with novel modes of action is vital to overcome the threats created by the emergence of such resistances. Light therapy modalities represent a viable and effective alternative to the conventional antimicrobial treatment and can be preponderant in the control of HAIs, even against multidrug resistant organisms (MDROs). This review will initially focus on the actual state of HAIs and MDROs and which methods are currently available to fight them, which is followed by the exploration of antimicrobial photodynamic therapy (aPDT) and antimicrobial blue light therapy (aBLT) as alternative approaches to control microorganisms involved in HAIs. The advantages and drawbacks of BLT relatively to aPDT and conventional antimicrobial drugs as well as its potential applications to destroy microorganisms in the healthcare setting will also be discussed.
Highlights
At present, hospital acquired infections (HAIs) have become a major problem responsible for millions of deaths and huge costs for health systems, especially if the causing agent is a multi-drug resistant organism (MDRO)
This is due to the photodynamic inactivation being a multi-target process that mainly affects the external constituents of the microorganisms and, since the reactive oxygen species (ROS) are not generated in the nucleus, the limited lifespan and their outer location restricts its area of action
MDROs are increasing in hospital facilities, which is allied to the economical disinterest of pharmaceutical companies in producing new antimicrobials
Summary
Hospital acquired infections (HAIs) have become a major problem responsible for millions of deaths and huge costs for health systems, especially if the causing agent is a multi-drug resistant organism (MDRO). Given the increasing use of these drugs, especially in hospital settings, the development of microbial resistance has become an emerging problem that represents tremendous costs and is responsible for very high morbidity and mortality. Microorganisms, such as bacteria, fungi, viruses, and parasites, can replicate very rapidly and acquire genetic traits, capable of promoting their survival in the presence of an antimicrobial agent. The implementation of this technology could contribute to an effective, safe, and cheap disinfection method of various hospital surfaces over the long term [9]
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