Virus Inactivation in the 1990 s — and into the 21 st Century

44 BioPharm International FEBRUARY 2003 regulatory authorities, and it is also critical to ensuring worker safety when dealing with high-risk materials. A disinfectant has been defined as “an agent that frees from infection; usually a chemical agent that destroys disease germs or other harmful microorganisms or inactivates virus” (6). In this article, disinfectants targeted to specific viruses are discussed first, followed by specific approaches reported in the literature for disinfection in plasma and culture media. The full name of viruses abbreviated in this article can be found in the “Virus Abbreviations” sidebar, along with whether those viruses are enveloped or not.