What is pathogen inactivation?
A. A pathogen is any agent that causes disease, including bacteria, fungi, protozoa, viruses and prions. Pathogen inactivation is a process designed to render a biological product non-infectious. A complete pathogen inactivation process encompasses both bacterial and viral inactivation and unconventional pathogens (such as prions which are thought to cause Creutzfield-Jacob syndrome, or “Mad Cow Disease”). The extent of pathogen inactivation can never be absolute, but rather is calculated as the probability that a living organism is present to potentially infect the patient.