Penticton Regional Hospital (PRH), located in the Okanagan area of British Columbia, has committed to implementing Canadian life sciences company Ondine Biomedical’s (LON: OBI) Steriwave® nasal photodisinfection technology as standard-of-care for patients undergoing orthopedic surgery. Penticton Regional Hospital, affiliated with UBC Faculty of Medicine, currently undertakes approximately 900 orthopedic surgeries annually.

The PRH team has selected Steriwave as a highly effective method of preventing hospital-acquired infections (HAIs) following surgery. This is particularly important due to growing concern about antimicrobial resistance (AMR), as hospitals must adapt their protocols to combat the rapid rise of drug-resistant pathogens.

One in nine hospital patients in Canada gets a healthcare-associated infection (HAI) resulting in around 12,000 deaths a year.[i] HAIs are also becoming harder to treat due to rising rates of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) which are making some commonly used antibiotics ineffective.[ii] This has meant that one in 19 deaths in Canada are now attributable to antibiotic-resistant infections.[iii] The cost of AMR to the Canadian healthcare sector is also projected to increase from $1.4 billion to $7.6 billion per year by 2050.^[iv]

Ondine Biomedical’s CEO, Carolyn Cross, said:

“We are very pleased that Steriwave will soon be adopted as the standard-of-care for patients undergoing orthopedic surgeries performed at Penticton Regional Hospital. It is gratifying to be working with Interior Health and this orthopedics team who are so committed to combatting the risk of post-surgical infections and keeping their patients safe against rising rates of antibiotic resistance. This also demonstrates Steriwave’s growing status as an effective alternative to topical antibiotics for infection prevention that easily fits into existing hospital workflows.”

Ondine’s nasal photodisinfection treatment kills all types of pathogens – viruses, bacteria, and fungi – without causing resistance and is already in use in major hospitals across Canada, including Vancouver General and UBC Hospitals in BC, The Ottawa Hospital (Ontario), the Mazankowski Alberta Heart Institute (Alberta), and the Montreal Heart Institute (Quebec).

Nasal photodisinfection is a non-antibiotic method for nasal decolonization that uses a proprietary light-activated agent to destroy pathogens. First, the agent is applied to each nostril using a nasal swab, then the area is illuminated with a specific wavelength of light. The light activates the photodynamic agent, causing an oxidative burst that destroys pathogens. In this single, 5-minute treatment, Steriwave eliminates infection-causing bacteria, viruses, and fungi in the nose.[v]

[i] https://cupe.ca/health-care-associated-infections-backgrounder-and-fact-sheet

[ii] Poovelikunnel T, Gethin G, Humphreys H. Mupirocin resistance: clinical implications and potential alternatives for the eradication of MRSA. J Antimicrob Chemother. 2015 Oct;70(10):2681-92. doi: 10.1093/jac/dkv169. Epub 2015 Jul 3.

[iii] Healthcare-associated infections and antimicrobial resistance in Canadian acute care hospitals, CCDR 49(5) – Canada.ca

[iv] Healthcare-associated infections and antimicrobial resistance in Canadian acute care hospitals, CCDR 49(5) – Canada.ca

[v] Liu Z, Norman G, Iheozor-Ejiofor Z, Wong JK, Crosbie EJ, Wilson P. Nasal decontamination for the prevention of surgical site infection in Staphylococcus aureus carriers. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2017 May 18;5(5):CD012462. doi: 10.1002/14651858.CD012462.pub2. PMID: 28516472; PMCID: PMC6481881.