It's very hard to be sure of removing all viruses and prions from a surface... especially if that surface is porous or worn-down from any use. Deep, long super

It's very hard to be sure of removing all viruses and prions from a surface... especially if that surface is porous or worn-down from any use. Deep, long superheating might do it... but that itself can wear or destroy many materials, and the item would need to be kept in 'like-new' sterilization until next use. Hospitals might not be the best place to try to do that; in 2002 there were about 30,000 deaths in the US due to hospital-acquired bloodstream infections, per the study referenced at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hospital-acquired_infection#United_States http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hospital-acquired_infection#Uni...