Copper Surfaces Reduce Health Acquired Infections

A new study demonstrates that copper consistently limits bacterial burden (BB) both before and after cleaning, reducing health acquired infections (HAIs).

Researchers at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC; Charleston, USA) tested the capability of copper surfaces to reduce environmental contamination of microbes at three medical centers between July 12, 2010, and June 14, 2011. Patients admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) of these hospitals were randomly assigned to receive care in a traditional patient room or in a room where items such as bed rails, tables, intravenous (IV) poles, and nurse call buttons had copper surfaces. Both traditional patient rooms and rooms with copper surfaces at each institution were cleaned using the same practices.

The results showed that the proportion of patients who developed HAIs and/or colonization with Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) or Vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus (VRE) in the rooms with copper surfaces was significantly reduced; these same patients also had less than half the number of other infections compared to patients in traditional ICU rooms. The study was published in the May 2013 issue of Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology.

“Our study found that placement of items with copper surfaces into ICU rooms as an additional measure to routine infection control practices could reduce the risk of HAI as well as colonization with multidrug resistant microbes,” said lead author associate professor of infectious diseases Cassandra Salgado, MD.

“We didn’t think we’d get a 60% difference. The average length of stay at the hospital bed at MUSC is four days. If you get an infection, it adds 19 days to the length of your stay,” added study coauthor microbiologist Michael Schmidt, PhD. “You don’t have to be a hospital economist to understand what that will do to costs. You can quickly understand how something so simple can really change the likelihood of you getting a bad outcome.”

HAIs often contaminate items within hospital rooms, allowing bacteria to transfer from patient to patient. Previous attempts to reduce HAIs have required health care worker engagement or use of systems such as ultraviolet (UV) light, which may be limited because of regrowth of organisms after the intervention. In contrast, copper alloy surfaces offer a passive way to fight HAIs, without staff intervention or involvement with outside providers.

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Medical University of South Carolina