Metal ion technologies-What can they kill?
As mentioned in my recent blog, some metals, especially copper and silver, are being used in touchless disinfecting products in medical environments. In that blog I briefly discussed the multiple non-specific parallel mechanisms by which exposure of microorganisms to high concentrations to these...
Metal ion technologies-How do they work?
Several metals, such as manganese, zinc, magnesium, iron and copper, are essential elements required for the survival and normal function of microorganisms. For example, some of these metals are enzyme cofactors that without their precise interaction these enzymes cannot function. Since metals are...
How effective are UV or misting technologies?
Chemical fumigation was used in the 1960s to supplement standard environmental surface disinfection in hospital isolation rooms (1). As mentioned in my last blog, the CDC in their Guidelines for Environmental Infection Control in Health-Care Facilities, recommend against using chemical fogging due...
Touchless Disinfecting- mist and emitting technologies (UV and Hydrogen peroxide)-How do they work?
As discussed in earlier blogs, microorganisms can survive in the environment for long periods of time and it has become clear that eliminating microorganisms from the patient immediate and non-immediate surroundings significantly contributes to the reduction of HAIs. It has also become clear that...
Publication Alert - New scientific paper review - High diversity of airborne fungi in the hospital environment
In this, the first of a series of mini blogs the Cupron team is going to be reviewing and breaking down a recent publication for you-the readers information. In other mini posts we are going to be introducing a number of key organisms from the environment as well as their pathogenic and resistance...
How effective is manual cleaning in hospitals?
Hospital cleaning depends on many factors, such as the frequencies, methodology and equipment used, monitoring and training of personnel. How these parameters influence the effectiveness of the cleaning process are nicely discussed by Dancer SJ (1,2). In previous posts we discussed the choices of...
Whats the evidence for hand or glove contamination with nosocomial pathogens after touching environmental surfaces?
In previous blogs we discussed how surfaces in close proximity to hospitalized patients become contaminated with a range of pathogens (see here). Our review of contamination of environmental solid surfaces, and soft surfaces demonstrated that these surfaces have a role in the infection process. In...
Review of textiles and environmental soft surfaces as a vector for hospital acquired infections
There has been a rise in the data that supports the environment as one of the important modes of pathogen transmission that contributes significantly to hospital acquired infections (HAI). For example, Gastmeier and his colleagues attributed the source of outbreaks to contaminated surfaces in...
Do hard surfaces play a role in the transmission of nosocomial pathogens
As discussed in our previous blogs, surfaces with frequent hand contact and in close proximity to the patients are often the most colonized with pathogens. These pathogens can remain viable on these inanimate surfaces for prolonged periods of time, and over a wide range of environmental conditions....
What environmental factors influence survival of microorganisms on surfaces?
Microorganisms have been found to remain viable in inanimate surfaces from days to even years (1). The longer a microorganism persists on a surface, the longer the contaminated surface may be a source of transmission and thus endanger a susceptible patient or healthcare worker of becoming the target...