The control of microbial infections is an important issue. Many of the international organizations, including the U.S. Centre of Disease Control (USCDC), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA), etc, have been promoting guidelines for the cleaning of households, public area and hospitals for years. Despite frequent cleaning and abundant resources on how to keep a hygienic environment, there are difficulties in implementing effective hygiene protocols. A growing number of studies indicate that contaminated surfaces in hospitals are important source of pathogens. Drug resistance bacteria including methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), multiple drug resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa (MRPA), multiple drug resistant acinetobacter species (MDRA), and carbapenem resistant...[ Read more ]

The control of microbial infections is an important issue. Many of the international organizations, including the U.S. Centre of Disease Control (USCDC), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA), etc, have been promoting guidelines for the cleaning of households, public area and hospitals for years. Despite frequent cleaning and abundant resources on how to keep a hygienic environment, there are difficulties in implementing effective hygiene protocols. A growing number of studies indicate that contaminated surfaces in hospitals are important source of pathogens. Drug resistance bacteria including methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), multiple drug resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa (MRPA), multiple drug resistant acinetobacter species (MDRA), and carbapenem resistant enterobacteriaceae (CRE) are increasingly found in hospital furniture, electronic equipment and medical items and this has been associated with an increased rate of health-care associated infection. Many new technologies have been developed to tackle the long survivability of microorganisms and their ability to be transferred by indirect contact through inanimate surfaces. This can be achieved by either physically or chemically disinfecting an area. However, most of the methods do not provide a sustainable protection to inanimate surfaces. Antimicrobial surfaces are considered as a possible solution to reduce surface contamination level.

In this work, a chlorine dioxide based antimicrobial coating has been fabricated using nano-encapsulation technology. The antimicrobial coating demonstrate long term antimicrobial activity by its contact killing and release-killing properties. The antimicrobial coating has been tested in isolation wards, orthopedics and elderly homes. All the field study results indicated that the antimicrobial coating was able to improve the cleanliness of the coated surfaces compared to the routine cleaning regime with diluted bleach solution. Most importantly, the occurrence of Multidrug resistant bacteria on surfaces has been significantly reduced.

An alternative antimicrobial coating has been developed using natural plant extracts. Synergism in antimicrobial activity has been observed through the combination of different phytochemicals and membrane-active polymers. The phytochemical based coating has shown irreversible damage to the membrane of both Gram-positive bacteria and Gram-negative bacteria.