Certification Board of Infection Control and Epidemiology (CBIC) 2025 – 400 Free Practice Questions to Pass the Exam

High-level disinfection is specifically necessary for heat-sensitive semi-critical items because these items come into contact with mucous membranes or non-intact skin, posing a risk for the transmission of infections. Semi-critical items do not withstand high temperatures, making high-level disinfection an essential process to ensure they are safe for reuse.

High-level disinfection effectively eliminates all microorganisms, including bacteria and viruses, but may not kill large numbers of bacterial spores. This makes it suitable for semi-critical items such as endoscopes or certain surgical instruments that cannot be sterilized by heat but require a high level of disinfection to be safe.

Non-critical items, on the other hand, typically only come into contact with intact skin and can often be adequately cleaned and disinfected with lower levels of disinfection processes. All surgical instruments may include both critical and semi-critical items, but only critical items require sterilization, and not all surgical instruments are heat-sensitive. Disposable items are intended for single use and do not require reprocessing, as their design is to be discarded after use. Therefore, high-level disinfection is only necessary for those items that are semi-critical and sensitive to heat, making this the correct context for the answer.