New surface tackles hospital infectious agents - Digital Journal

Reducing bacterial pathogens in hospitals remains something of continued importance, given the rate nosocomial infections. Nosocomial infections also referred to as healthcare-associated infections, are infection(s) acquired during the process of receiving health care that was not present during the time of admission.

In the U.S., according to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, each year approximately 2 million patients suffer with healthcare-associated infections in hospital settings, and nearly 90,000 are estimated to die.

One of the preventative measures subject to considerable research is with antimicrobial surfaces. A new study, reported in December 2021, concerns a variant of a copper surface eliminates bacteria in just two minutes.

The data, from RMIT University, shows that the surface eliminates bacteria more than 100 times faster and more effectively than standard copper. If such a surface was incorporated into hospitals, such as forming the structural frames of beds, door handles, and shelving, this could help combat the growing threat of antibiotic-resistant superbugs.

It is already established that copper can supress the growth or kill most strains of bacteria due to the release of ions released from the metal’s surface. A limitation with this antimicrobial action is that the process is relatively slow, taking around four hours to kill Staphylococcus aureus cells.

But this process is slow when standard copper is used, as RMIT University’s...

Your content is great. However, if any of the content contained herein violates any rights of yours, including those of copyright, please contact us immediately by e-mail at media[@]kissrpr.com.