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Abstract

A combination of factors has caused an upsurge in the emergence of infectious agents in the past few decades, with viruses
representing nearly 67% of those recognized between 1980-2014; prominent among the newly discovered ones are the causes
of AIDS, hepatitis C, pandemic influenza, Ebolavirus and severe respiratory infections (e.g., SARS, Nipah, Hendra, MERS).
Predictive modelling suggests that by 2020 another 10-40 new viruses will be discovered.
Although vaccination, antiviral chemotherapy, control of insect vectors, screening of blood/tissues, and the use of barriers such
as condoms can effectively interrupt virus dissemination, the use of microbicidal chemicals for environmental decontamination
and hand hygiene in both domestic and institutional settings remains an essential preventive strategy to safe-guard public health.
Consequently, national and international agencies including WHO emphasize the use of appropriate environmental surface
disinfectants and antiseptics, in conjunction with proper hand hygiene, as essential and generic components of preventive strategies
against viruses as well as other types of infectious agents.
While most regulatory agencies normally register environmental surface disinfectants for sale based on testing against
surrogate microbial agents, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) requires test data against each virus to be listed
on product labels. Such a system makes selection of disinfectants difficult against emerging viruses. To address this, an interim
guidance system against emerging viruses has been developed based on the known hierarchy of resistance/susceptibility of existing
human pathogenic viruses to environmental surface disinfectants. This presentation will summarize this predictive approach and
its applications to Ebola and other newly discovered viruses.

Biography

M. Khalid Ijaz received DVM, MSc (Honours) from University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Pakistan and completed Ph.D. in Microbiology and Immunology in 1985 at
University of Ottawa, Canada. He did his post-doctoral work at the Vaccines and Infectious Disease Organization (VIDO), Canada. Currently, he’s Research Fellow at RB,
Montvale, N.J. and Adjunct Associate Professor at The City University of New York (CUNY). His research focuses on human pathogenic microbial agents’ spread via the
environment and mitigational role of hygiene agents. He is an active member of various scientific organizations including American for Microbiology, American Society for
Virology, ASTM-International, Association of Professional for Infection Control and Epidemiology and International Society for Infectious Diseases.