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A handful of intensive care units will soon be fitted with copper equipment to see if the metal is any better at preventing the spread of harmful bacteria than stainless steel, the current standard.

Hospital Infections Deadly
Hospital-acquired infections are a major cause of illness and death in the United States. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than a million Americans acquire infections in hospitals every year, and approximately 100,000 of those die.

Good hygiene practices have long been the first line of defense against the spread of germs in hospitals, but now health experts are looking at another approach: anti-germ coatings on medical equipment.

Silver-Coatings Show Promise
Researchers are currently looking to the effectiveness of silver and copper as anti-germ coatings. The Food and Drug Administration recently approved the first silver-coated breathing tube and IV catheter connector.

FDA research showed that at-risk patients who were given a silver-coated breathing tube were less likely to develop pneumonia than those who were given a regular breathing tube — 4.8 percent compared to 7.5 percent.

Copper Too?
And a recent British study found that drug-resistant bacteria lived longer (3 days) on stainless steel than on pure copper (90 minutes).

In the new study, researchers will replace some germ-prone surfaces in ICUs with copper to determine if the metal helps prevent hospital-acquired infections. Participating hospitals include a Veterans Affairs medical center, the Medical University of South Carolina, and the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York.

(Source: Associated Press)

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