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Definition 3 Disinfection is the process of inactivation of a fraction of the total<br />

microorganisms existing on the treated object.<br />

If the desired effect is the total disinfection of an object, then the process will<br />

be called sterilization [7, 8, 10]. Under these terms, the sterilization can be defined<br />

under two different aspects: a theoretical, as well as a practical (operational) one.<br />

Definition 4 (Theoretical) Sterilization is the process of inactivation of all the<br />

microorganisms existent on the treated object.<br />

In practice, the assessment of the effectiveness of an inactivation experiment<br />

is realized by counting the surviving microorganisms [10-12]. This experimental<br />

procedure makes use of the following operational definitions:<br />

Definition 5 Disinfection is the process at the end of which the number of<br />

surviving microorganisms is at least one.<br />

Definition 6 Sterilization is the process at the end of which the number of<br />

surviving microorganisms is less than one.<br />

These definitions are also illustrated by the schematically representation from<br />

the Fig. 1.1.<br />

Usually, the standard number of microorganisms infecting an object is chosen<br />

to be 10 6 [13-18]. Then, in accord with the above definitions, at the end of<br />

the experiment, the treated object (surface) is said to be "sterilized" if the final<br />

3

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