Shield fabrics fight spread of hospital bugs
Study finds they can play a role in reducing contamination
Shield fabrics reduce 99.9% of bacteria within one hour, eliminating almost all the microorganisms that contaminate hospital curtains, research funded by InPro Corporation, a US supplier of door and wall protection, washroom systems and commercial surfaces, has found.
Guiqing Wang and Alexander Kryszuk, two researchers from the New York Medical College (NYMC) in Valhalla, NY, found that, when compared with standard-fabric and non-fabric control samples, the Shield materials, for which InPro is the sole North American distributor, demonstrated significant antimicrobial effectiveness against a range of pathogens, including multidrug-resistant microorganisms such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus sp (VRE) and common MDR gram-negative bacilli.
“Our customers have told us time and again the importance of clean surfaces,” says Mark Alan, senior vice president of product management and development for InPro. “We saw the potential in Shield and have met the needs of the industry by reducing the risk of cross-contamination.”
Wang concluded that Shield fabrics could play a part in reducing contamination of privacy curtains in hospital environments. InPro Corporation funded the study through a grant to NYMC.
