The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is investigating reports of an environmental bacterium linked to the use of non-sterile ultrasound gel in percutaneous procedures across multiple states between 2024 and 2025.

The bacterium, Paraburkholderia fungorum, was identified in patient blood cultures and found to be genetically similar to isolates recovered from non-sterile ultrasound gel products. The CDC has linked the organism to at least two gel brands—MediChoice and ClearImage—manufactured by NEXT Medical Products Company, with specific product lots currently under scrutiny.

Use of non-sterile ultrasound gel in percutaneous procedures—which involve puncturing the skin, such as during central line placement, amniocentesis, or biopsies—can pose a serious risk to patient safety. Even in the absence of known contamination, microorganisms in non-sterile gel can enter sterile body sites, leading to infections or false-positive cultures that may result in unnecessary treatments.

As of May 8, 2025, the CDC is aware of 40 P. fungorum isolates primarily identified in blood cultures from patients in four US states and two other countries. Some of these patients were known to have undergone ultrasound-guided percutaneous procedures before sample collection. In most cases, the patients did not appear to be clinically infected, but the presence of the bacterium still poses concerns for contamination and potential harm.

In response, the CDC recommends healthcare facilities use only single-use ultrasound gel products labeled as “sterile” for percutaneous procedures. It also advises that healthcare personnel be properly trained in distinguishing between sterile and non-sterile products, noting that terms like “bacteriostatic” or “preservative” do not equate to sterility.

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Key Takeaways:

• The partnership with UVD Robots enhances germicidal efficacy and productivity, reducing the need for operator involvement and room turnover time.
• UVD Robots provide accurate room mapping and performance monitoring, supporting Sodexo’s commitment to maintaining high environmental hygiene standards.

Sodexo, provider of essential, non-clinical services for healthcare organizations, announced a partnership with UVD Robots, maker of autonomous UV robots. By providing the latest innovation in UV, this partnership aims to bolster Sodexo’s Protecta program, elevating environmental hygiene and keeping staff and clients safer.

Commitment to Environmental Hygiene

“Effective healthcare operations demand meticulous attention, extending to rigorous environmental hygiene standards,” said Lisa Zierten, global Protecta brand lead, Sodexo. “Enhancing germicidal efficacy, streamlining processes to optimize productivity, and minimizing operator involvement are critical priorities. We’re excited about collaborating with UVD Robots to implement their innovative solutions, bolstering our commitment to keeping the environment of care safe.”

Advantages of Autonomous UV Robots

The autonomous robots are designed to enhance productivity and efficacy compared to legacy stationary UV equipment. With UVD Robots, workers no longer need to reposition units within rooms, freeing them for other critical tasks and reducing room turnover time.

The robots are also effective against resilient organisms, with accurate room mapping and the ability to get closer to surfaces. UVD Robots feature redundant safety systems and generate detailed reports, showcasing comprehensive mapping and performance monitoring.

Strategic Partnership

“Partnering with Sodexo is an ideal fit,” says Janus Doré Pagh, CEO at Blue Ocean Robotics, the manufacturer of UVD Robots. “Sodexo’s leadership in environmental hygiene serving a variety of facilities across the globe perfectly complements our commitment to delivering advanced self-driving UV germicidal solutions. Together we can empower cleaning and disinfection teams to achieve unparalleled standards of environmental hygiene.”

To accomplish this, they used an adaptive mesh finite-element computational fluid dynamics model to simulate 3D spatial distribution of the virus within the room—based on data collected from the room during a COVID patient’s stay.

COVID Isolation Rooms

In Physics of Fluids, from AIP Publishing, Wu et al. share their findings and guidance for isolation rooms. Their work centers on the location of the room’s air extractor (air outlet) and filtration rates, the location of the patient’s bed, and the health and safety of the hospital staff working within the area.

“We modeled the virus transport and spreading processes and considered the effect of the temperature and humidity on the virus decay,” says Fangxin Fang, of Imperial College London. “We also modeled fluid and turbulence dynamics in our study, and explored the spatial distribution of virus, velocity field, and humidity under different air exchange rates and extractor locations.”

They discovered that the area of highest risk of infection is above a patient’s bed at a height of 0.7 to 2 meters, where the highest concentration of COVID virus is found. After the virus is expelled from a patient’s mouth, it gets driven vertically by buoyancy and wind forces within the room.

Based on the group’s findings, the optimal layout for an isolation room to minimize infection risk is to use a ceiling extractor with an air exchange rate of 10 air changes per hour. The study focused on an isolation room within a hospital and its numerical results are limited due to the omission of droplet evaporation and particle matters, the researchers point out.

Now, the group plans to include evaporation and particle processes in models of a standard hospital patient room, intensive care unit, and waiting room.

“Further work will also focus on artificial intelligence-based surrogate modeling for rapid simulations, uncertainty analysis, and optimal control of ventilation systems as well as efficient energy use,” says Fang.

The Spectra 1000’s no-touch disinfection technology provides an advanced level of room disinfection within minutes. The portable device on wheels uses proprietary UVC technology to kill pathogens on hard surfaces while simultaneously disinfecting the air at a rate of 250 cubic feet per minute. Spectra 1000 offers cloud-based reporting to help infection prevention directors track data and usage of each device, and units can be linked together for easy maneuverability of units throughout the facility.

“We are excited to partner with a company that shares our goal of offering innovations that help healthcare run better,” says Megan Henken, vice president of product management for Medline’s Environmental Services division. “The price structure of the Spectra 1000 makes it achievable for facilities of all sizes to buy the number of units needed to fully implement this into cleaning and disinfecting practices and make a measurable impact in reducing infections.”

Spectra 1000 is the latest UV disinfection addition to Medline’s environmental services portfolio and complements the division’s products and programs that create efficiencies and empower environmental cleaning staff. Examples include the S400 Portable Air Disinfection Device, Medline’s Clean by Sequence microfiber booklets, and Micro-Kill One Disinfectant Wipes, as well as interactive online training courses, posters, and in-person education to train staff.

“Many UV disinfection devices come at a high price point. I wanted to create something that considers the budgets of healthcare providers both big and small without sacrificing any efficacy,” says John Flynn, founder of Integrated UVC Solutions. “Medline’s industry expertise and sales team dedicated to working with environmental services and infection prevention staff are invaluable as we unveil Spectra 1000.”

Featured image: Medline has expanded its environmental service portfolio with Spectra 1000, a surface and air room UV disinfection device. The exclusive distribution partnership with Connecticut-based Integrated UVC Solutions will help healthcare providers enhance UV disinfection practices. Photo: Medline.

Mary Mayhew, the CEO of the Florida Hospital Association, said 16 hospitals across the state had evacuated or were in the process of evacuating Thursday afternoon.

Some moved patients earlier this week when the hurricane was expected to make landfall in the Tampa Bay area, she said. Hurricane Ian ultimately made landfall near Fort Myers, about 100 miles south of Tampa Bay, on Wednesday.

Emergency responders are concerned about operations in Lee County, where are at least nine hospitals are without water, Deanne Criswell, the administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said Thursday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”

Read the full article at NBC News.

A patient died and a paramedic was critically injured when their ambulance caught fire outside a hospital in Hawaii, emergency officials said.

“We had an ambulance tonight for reasons we don’t understand catch on fire, possibly explode, prior to entering the hospital,” said Dr. Jim Ireland, the emergency services director. “We’re all just very concerned about our team and the patient that lost their life.”

The 91-year-old patient and the paramedic were in the back of the ambulance as it pulled up to Adventist Castle Health in Kailua on Wednesday night. Another emergency medical technician who was driving the ambulance escaped injury after helping the injured paramedic escape the back of the burning vehicle.

Read the full story at ABC News.

The CerroZone mobile unit is designed to purify air in buildings such as schools, retail environments, offices, and other indoor spaces. CerroZone’s indoor system achieved a 99.998 percent reduction of live COVID-19 Delta Variant in a single pass of approximately 1.2 seconds, according to independent testing at MRI Global in Kansas City.

The CerroZone product features patented ozone technology. “This is the first technology to truly harness the disinfecting power of ozone in a way that is safe for consumers and the environment,” says Michael Duggan, president of St. Louis, Mo.-based CerroZone. “It will fundamentally change the industry standard for air purification.”

CerroZone previously announced it had achieved Intertek’s Zero Ozone Certification. Intertek considers emissions of .005 ppm or less to be negligible per UL 2998, the North American industry standard for ozone testing. The CerroZone unit recorded at only .001 ppm.

The CerroZone platform only requires annual preventive maintenance, unlike filtration-based systems that need quarterly replacement of filters and other components.

“Today’s news further validates the exceptional quality of our system,” says Marlon Robinson, director of operations for CerroZone. “We knew the effectiveness of the CerroZone unit based on our prior testing, including on live COVID-19. To show similar effectiveness on a different strain reinforces that CerroZone is positioned to aid the public in the fight against emerging and future variants.”

Robinson added, “We are now ready to commercialize this amazing technology. We have been methodical in our approach, with successful field trials consistently demonstrating our product’s performance. We look forward to providing the market with an effective, proven solution including an attractive preventive maintenance schedule.”

The patented CerroZone system was developed in conjunction with Micron Pure, a Hecto Group company.

Duke Health is ramping up security at its hospitals following an attack that left an emergency room nurse unconscious and with facial fractures. 

Police arrested a patient at Duke Raleigh (N.C.) Hospital July 29 after he allegedly punched a nurse in the face that morning, which left her unconscious and with a broken nose and eye socket, The News & Observer reports. The patient is accused of breaking a security guard’s finger and threatening several people in the emergency room.

The patient is being held on a $30,000 bond for two charges of aggravated assault and one charge of communicated threats.

Read the full article at Becker’s Hospital Review.

Since 2015, Scientific Air patented three-stage, advanced UVC Carbon and HEPA filtration systems have been improving indoor air quality in high-traffic, occupied spaces at leading healthcare facilities throughout the USA, including Athena Healthcare Systems, Advent Healthcare, NYU Medical Center, University of Rochester Medical Center, The Federal VA Hospital System, Baptist Health South Miami, Kaiser Permanente Medical of California, and New York Health + Hospital Corp.

The follow-on order for the mobile S200 air purification is in further support of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Policy announced earlier in the year to ease visitation in long-term care facilities. Under the CMS policy guidance, it provides funding available for long-term care providers looking to make air quality upgrades to their facilities to reduce the spread of COVID-19.

Additionally, the air purification sales channel is the strongest in the company’s history due in part to, increased awareness around improving indoor air quality, the impact of the marketing campaign launched earlier in the quarter, coupled with the company’s expanded domestic distribution reach.

Collectively, these combined efforts are positively impacting the company’s air purification sales channel pipeline across multiple verticals. If the company is successful in converting the pipeline that includes several multi-million-dollar contract bids, to closed sales, this could impact revenue significantly over the next six to 12 months.

“The CMS Policy guidance acknowledges the critical role that pathogen elimination solutions can play in protecting both the frontline Heroes in Long-term Care and the elderly patients in their care in the fight against the spread of COVID-19 and other airborne pathogens,” says John F. Andrews, Applied UV’s CEO and director. “This initiative CMS has unleashed, ensures that cost is not a barrier for long-term care providers wishing to ease visitation restrictions that have been in place, but also offers longer term solutions to protect its patients, staff, and visitors. It has been well documented the unimaginable emotional toll placed on families who have been physically separated by strict facility visitation restrictions throughout the course of this 3-year pandemic.”

Andrews continued: “Healthcare is a key vertical market for us. We work with hundreds of leaders in healthcare facilities across the country where pathogen spread is an ever-present challenge. Our patented air purification technology has been independently tested and scientifically proven to eliminate airborne pathogens including SARS COV-2 (Covid-19). Our Scientific Air Management S-200 is a mobile, easy to use solution to mitigate against the spread of respiratory infections in long-term care facilities creating a cleaner and safer environment for visitation. We look forward to working closely with MedLine who is one of the largest distributors in healthcare as we expand our market share and presence in LTC. With our expanding sales pipeline, our entire team is focused on closing contracts, increasing market share, and executing on our business plan.”

Featured image: Scientific Air S200. Photo: Business Wire

The Aura Storm air purifier is a free standing, air purification device utilizing ultraviolet light and a multi-stage filtration system for the inactivation of bacteria and viruses in hospitals and other medical related facilities.

With this clearance, the Aura Storm will now be offered as a medical device to hospitals, nursing homes, hospice facilities, and other medical and dental offices to mitigate risks associated with airborne threats such as the coronavirus, monkeypox, and HAI (Hospital Acquired Infections).

“Invictus is excited to have successfully completed the 510(k)-clearance process,” says Invictus CEO Erik McMillan. “Hospital Acquired Infections (HAIs) are responsible for billions of dollars in unnecessary medical expenditures each year. Our Invictus Aura Storm helps to mitigate that by providing the most economical unit on the market in terms of protected area and pathogen coverage per dollar spent. Invictus will continue this journey by having its other units complete the FDA 510(k) certification process in the upcoming months.”

The FDA clearance was contingent on an extensive amount of testing conducted at accredited independent third-party testing facilities.

Tulika Narain, MD, of SV Professional Center in Patchogue, NY has been operating multiple Aura Storm units throughout the medical clinic.

“We understand the airborne transmission of bacteria and viruses and are deeply invested in the safety of our patients, staff, and their families,” says Narain. “We were excited to deploy a high-level of air purification and protection to our facility and utilized the Aura Storm air purifier to provide protection in our waiting area, common areas, and staff areas. The FDA-clearance delivers peace of mind regarding the effectiveness of these air purifiers.”

Featured image: The FDA-clearance provides peace of mind regarding the effectiveness of the Invictus Aura Storm air purifiers. Photo: Invictus Sterilization