Is there a difference between the two concepts of disinfection and sterilization?

Disinfect. It refers to a method that kills pathogenic microorganisms, but does not necessarily kill bacterial spores. Chemical methods are usually used to achieve the effect of disinfection. The chemicals used for disinfection are called disinfectants.

Sterilization. It refers to the method of killing all microorganisms (including bacterial spores) on an object, and usually uses physical methods to achieve the purpose of sterilization.

In the cultivation of microorganisms and the production of edible fungi, disinfection and sterilization operations are often required. Disinfection and sterilization are both aimed at destroying harmful microorganisms so that the target bacteria can be cultured purely. However, the degree and scope of the destruction of harmful microorganisms are different.

Therefore, the concepts of disinfection and sterilization are different.

Disinfection refers to the use of physical or chemical methods to eliminate a certain range of harmful microorganisms and retain the target bacteria. For example, when isolating edible fungus tissues, the surface of the fruiting body must be disinfected to eliminate the miscellaneous bacteria on the body surface in order to obtain a pure culture of the isolate.

Sterilization refers to the use of physical or chemical methods to completely kill all microorganisms inside and outside the culture medium or utensils, so that the protein on the sterilized object is completely denatured.

1. Conceptual differences.

Disinfection refers to the lethal effect on the propagules of pathogenic microorganisms, but it cannot kill all microorganisms such as spores, so disinfection is incomplete and cannot replace sterilization. All chemicals used for disinfection are called disinfectants, so disinfectants are often called chemical disinfectants.

Sterilization kills all live microorganisms (including spores) in the object, and sterilization is a measure to use strong physical and chemical factors to make all microorganisms inside and outside any object permanently lose their ability to grow and reproduce. Physical methods are usually used to achieve the purpose of sterilization.

Second, the difference in treatment methods.

Compared with sterilization, sterilization is more demanding and more difficult to handle. Sterilization must be done using a physical method or a chemical sterilizer that kills the most resistant microorganisms (bacterial spores). Disinfection only requires the use of physical methods, chemical disinfectants or biological disinfectants with certain bactericidal efficacy.

The use of sterilization methods for disinfection is completely unnecessary, and it will also produce *** that could not have happened; However, if the sterilization treatment method is used for sterilization, it will lead to sterilization failure.

3. Differences in application.

Sterilization is mainly used to deal with the diagnosis and treatment supplies and industrial products that need to be sterilized in the hospital, and disinfection is used to deal with items in daily life and workplaces, and is also used for the treatment of general places and items in hospitals.

Encyclopedia - Sanitization"Encyclopedia - Sanitization

To use an analogy, for example, killing a group of hens, sterilization means killing only chickens, and sterilization means killing hens and eggs together (because eggs can also hatch chicks). To put it bluntly, one is thorough, and Qiao Min is not thorough. Personally, I understand that if you don't like it, don't spray it.

It's not a concept.

Differences: 1. The degree of achievement is different.

Disinfection refers to the method of killing pathogenic microorganisms, but not necessarily bacterial spores.

The use of strong physical and chemical factors to make all microorganisms inside and outside any object permanently lose their ability to grow and reproduce is called sterilization.

The degree of microbicity-free achieved by sterilization is far superior to that of sterilization.

2. The meaning is different.

Disinfection of infectious diseases is the use of physical or chemical methods to eliminate pathogens that stay on different vectors, so as to cut off the transmission route and prevent and control the occurrence of infection.

Sterilization refers to the use of physical or chemical methods to kill all microorganisms, including pathogenic and non-pathogenic microorganisms and spores, to achieve a sterility guarantee level.

3. Different application methods.

There are physical methods, chemical methods and biological methods, but biological methods use biological factors to remove pathogens, the effect is slow, and the sterilization is not thorough, and it is generally not used for disinfection of the source of infection, so the disinfection is mainly used by physical and chemical methods.

The commonly used methods of sterilization include chemical reagent sterilization, radiation sterilization, dry heat sterilization, wet shock mold heat sterilization, and filter sterilization. According to different needs, different methods can be used, such as medium sterilization, which is generally sterilized by moist heat, and air is sterilized by filtration.

Note: Sterilization is done on all microorganisms, not only bacteria, but also spores, viruses, fungi, mycoplasma, chlamydia and so on.

Methods that belong to this category: thermal sterilization (steam, dry heat), ultra-high pressure sterilization, ionizing radiation sterilization (25kgy), microwave sterilization, plasma sterilization and other physical sterilization methods, as well as chemical sterilization methods such as peracetic acid and hydrogen peroxide.

2. Sterility: Sterility is the result of sterilization, which means that it is completely free of microorganisms. The technique of preventing microorganisms from entering the body or objects becomes aseptic.

However, due to the limitations of the current inspection methods, the concept of absolute sterility cannot be applied to the evaluation of the sterility of the whole batch of products, so the concept of "sterility" currently used is "sterility" in the sense of probability. After terminal sterilization, the sterility assurance level of sterile products is 10-6 probability of residual microbial contamination.

3. Disinfection: kill or remove pathogenic microorganisms on the vector to achieve harmless treatment. Generally speaking, disinfection refers to killing microorganisms in the environment to prevent bacteria in the environment from contaminating food and causing excessive colonies.

4. Sterilization: refers to the killing of pathogenic bacteria in objects, which also contain non-pathogenic bacteria such as spores and thermophilic bacteria. Generally speaking, sterilization refers to the killing of bacteria in food, so that the remaining bacteria will not multiply in large quantities during the shelf life and cause food spoilage.

Disinfection refers to the use of physical, chemical or biological methods to inactivate pathogenic microorganisms in water bodies and reduce them to an acceptable level. The purpose of disinfection is to make the vector harmless, not to kill all microorganisms.

Sterilization refers to the killing of all microorganisms in the system, including pathogens and non-pathogens.

Sterilization: refers to the method of killing or removing all microorganisms from an object, including extremely resistant bacterial spores.

Disinfection: refers to the method of killing pathogenic microorganisms on objects, and spores or non-pathogenic microorganisms may still be alive. Medicines used to disinfect are called disinfectants.