Novel Textile Material Developed That Can Keep Itself Germ-Free
Hospital-acquired infection poses a great threat to the well-being of an individual and appropriate measure should be taken to curb them. A novel weapon—a textile that sterilizes itself—has been devised by the scientists in the fight against the fatal hospital-acquired infections. And independent tests demonstrated that it can decrease the levels of bacteria by more than 90%.
By integration of the specially engineered textile within a device developed to be utilized on hospital doors rather than the conventional aluminum door plate, that fragment of the door that individuals shove to open it—they intend to reinforce hand hygiene. A spin-out firm from the University of Leeds has developed the self-sterilizing device called as Surfaceskins and is the result of 7 years R&D.
The doors of the hospitals are known as a major weak link in sanitation as it is touched by people for several times. It simply needs a single individual with dirty hands to go through the door to place one and all else who walks in at risk of cross-contamination.
The Surfaceskins antibacterial door pads function by providing a small amount of alcohol gel on the pad when it is pressed, to sterilize the surface prepared for the next individual to use the door. This low-priced device integrates 3 distinct nonwoven textiles designed to be changed after 7 days or 100 pushes, either that comes earlier.
Surfaceskins antibacterial door pads are not intended to substitute the authoritarian hand-washing regulations in the hospitals, but rather offer an additional line of defense by aiding clean hands to remain clean. Professionals assume that Surfaceskins will upsurge the alertness of people about the significance of hand hygiene and washing hands.
At the commencement of the research, the control aluminum door plates as well as the Surfaceskins were inoculated with bacteria at levels observed on the hospital staff’s hands. The study determined that the Surfaceskins door pads were more operational compared to standard door plates over 7 days in decreasing the levels of 3 bacteria that generally are responsible for hospital-acquired infections: E. coli, E. faecalis, and S. aureus.
Medical Microbiology Professor at the University, Mark Wilcox—who headed the independent evaluation—said, “These findings propose that Surfaceskins door pads can assist in decreasing the uncleanness of doors because of microbes. They provide a new means to decrease the risk of an outbreak of viruses and bacteria in hospital environments as well as other settings where recurrent contact with doors can compromise hand hygiene.”