Copper-Silver alloy coated door handles as a potential antibacterial strategy in clinical settings

Abstract

Coating surfaces with a copper-silver alloy in clinical settings can be an alternative or complementary antibacterial strategy to other existing technologies and disinfection interventions. A newly developed copper-silver alloy coating has a high antibacterial efficacy against common pathogenic bacteria in laboratory setups, and the purpose of this study is to determine the antibacterial efficacy of this copper-silvery alloy in real-world clinical settings. Two field trials were carried out at a private clinic and a wound care center. Door handles coated with the copper-silver alloy had a lower total aerobic plate count (1.3 ± 0.4 Log CFU/cm2 and 0.8 ± 0.3 Log CFU/cm2, CFU stands for Colony Forming Units) than the reference uncoated material on-site (2.4 ± 0.4 Log CFU/cm2 for the stainless steel and 1.7 ± 0.4 Log CFU/cm2 for the satin brass). The copper-silver alloy did not selectively reduce specific bacterial species. This study points to the possibility of a successful long-term implementation of the copper-silver alloy coating as an antibacterial strategy.