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Cleaning + disinfecting nebulizer and aerobica

MAC & Bronchiectasis | Last Active: Jun 5 9:02pm | Replies (154)

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@mmahlik

I’ve been sterilizing after every use with Bololo baby bottle sterilizer. I guess I thought that would be enough but after reading posts I’m sobering if I should also use dish soap. I was told to take the nebulizer off the compresser tube and let the compressor run for two or three minutes after each use and that would dry out the tubing.

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Replies to "I’ve been sterilizing after every use with Bololo baby bottle sterilizer. I guess I thought that..."

I think you can breathe a sigh of relief - sometimes we get too far "down in the weeds" with trying to do everything exactly right when what we really need is a safe routine that works for each person in their life.

There are two things we are trying to do with cleaning and disinfecting - one is to disrupt the formation of biofilm where NTM like to hide and breed. The other is to kill the NTM that is present. Your sterilizer is killing any NTM.

Dr Falkinham and his colleagues did a study on how much NTM adheres to our devices a few years ago, and the answer is very few. Here is the slide, which is all I have been able to locate from the study:
https://evidence.monaghanmed.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/MD-295A-0423-mycobacterium_poster-EN-final.pdf
What it says is that, even after being submerged in a solution rich with NTM for 24 hours, very few colonies grew from a culture taken from the Aerobika or the nebulizer. (These devices were not cleaned before they were swabbed.) So even if your technique isn't perfect, you have very little to worry about.

PS According to my pulmonologist, getting people to clean and disinfect their equipment EVER, let alone every day, is one of her biggest hurdles