A hospital is the last place you want to get sick.
51% of patients in Intensive Care Units worldwide have infections and are more than twice as likely to die compared to patients without infections.1 80% of infectious diseases are transferred by touch.2
A worldwide study published in the Journal of the American
Medical Association surveyed the infection status of over
13,000 patients from 1,200 Intensive Care Units (ICUs) in 75
countries.3 More than half of all patients had an
infection. The survey found that more than half of all
patients had an infection and those that were infected were more
than twice as likely to die as uninfected patients. In
addition to increased mortality, it was found that the risk for
acquiring an infection increases the longer a patient stays in the
ICU. Of those patients that were in the ICU for a day or
less, only 32% had infections, while of those patients that stayed
in the ICU for more than a week 70% had infections.
80% of infectious diseases are transferred by touch.4
While healthcare professionals employ strict infection control
measures including hand-washing and frequent surface disinfection,
these measures are not enough as the number of hospital acquired
infections each year continues to rise.5 Frequently
touched surfaces in ICUs are heavily contaminated with anywhere
from several hundred to over ten thousand colony forming units of
infectious bacteria6. These surfaces are touched
by patients, families, doctors, nurses, and cleaning staff and it
is exactly here where an added line of defense now is
available.
Antimicrobial Copper touch surfaces kill the bacteria* that
cause infections where they lie. Antimicrobial Copper surfaces are
the most effective* antimicrobial touch surface and are ideal for
the healthcare environment where their inherent, continuous ability
to kill bacteria* will supplement infection control measures.
[1] (JAMA, 2009; 302(21)).
[2] Dr. Philip Tierno
[3] JAMA, 2009; 302(21)).
[4] Dr. Philip Tierno
[5] JAMA, 2009; 302(21)).
[6] Salgado et al
* Laboratory testing shows that, when cleaned regularly,
Antimicrobial Copper™ kills greater than 99.9% of the following
bacteria within 2 hours of exposure: MRSA,
Vancomycin-ResistantEnterococcus faecalis (VRE),
Staphylococcus aureus, Enterobacter
aerogenes, Pseudomonas aeruginosa,
and E. coli O157:H7. Antimicrobial Copper surfaces
are a supplement to and not a substitute for standard infection
control practices and have been shown to reduce microbial
contamination, but do not necessarily prevent cross contamination;
users must continue to follow all current infection control
practices. Michels et al, Lett Appl Microbiol,
49 (2009) 191-195 demonstrated that Antimicrobial Copper™
outperforms two commercially available silver-containing coatings
under typical indoor conditions.