Development of Coating for Incorporation of Beneficial Spores on Hospital Textiles

Hospital-acquired infections are a growing problem in hospitalized patient safety. and hospital textiles are reported as a significant source of these nosocomial pathogen. Contact with these textiles leads most often to the contamination and cross-contamination of the hospitalized patient and hospital staff. However, the common antimicrobial agents used in the production of antimicrobial textiles are proving to be a concern in terms of toxicity and antimicrobial resistance. Bacillus spores can be a good solution to combat pathogenic bacteria. In the present study, Bacillus spores were used in the coating of polyester fabrics. Afterwards the growth and viability of the beneficial bacteria applied on fabrics were monitored using the agar plate method. Besides this, the applicability to the fabric was evaluated on the basis of contact angle measurements, abrasion resistance and tensile tests. Major findings included that it is possible to incorporate Bacillus spores in coated fabrics and these can behave like q reservoir for beneficial bacteria.

Properties of Antibacterial Nano Textile for Use in Hospital Environments

In hospital environments, there are several problems related to Healthcare-Associated Infections (HAIs), contaminated hospital textiles, can contribute to the spread and transmission of (HAIs), due to retention of viruses and bacteria. The antibacterial metallic nanoparticles immersed in hospital textiles can allow reduction of microorganisms. This paper presents a technological surveillance of the principal properties of antibacterial nanotextiles to be used in hospital environments, based on international standards. Initially, the search equation was determined for “antibacterial” AND “nanoparticle.” Subsequently, the main properties were selected, by means of a multiple authors’ review. Afterwards, the properties were related to international standards. Finally, we present the results found associated to the materials used to develop nonwoven textiles, and their properties for hospital environments, the sizes of samples and also the equipment required for characterization.