In 2010, about 35.1 million Americans spent at least one night in the hospital (1). The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 5% of hospitalized patients suffer from a hospital-acquired infection. These infections cause about 99,000 deaths each year (2), resulting in a loss of $10 billion each year (3) in public health costs.

While nosocomial infections were brought under control with the advent of penicillin and other antibiotics, concerns about the spread of infections have recently been heightened by the rise of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Today, antibiotic-resistant infections show no signs of stopping. These infections have been attributed to the presence of harmful bacteria, misuse of antibiotics, infection control procedures and sterility standards. In fact, it has been predicted that by 2050, deaths from antibiotic-resistant bacteria will outnumber deaths from cancer.

Under lights, in equipment, screens, sheets, pillows and on gurneys, live a large number of microbes that have adapted to different environments and conditions, surviving despite cleaning and sanitization. This reality demonstrates the urgency of having technologies to reduce the spread and reproduction of these microbes that cause infections and diseases, which compromise our health and the conditions of hospital environments. At Copptech we have developed different solutions to be applied in hospitals, from textiles, paints, varnishes, plastics and more, to contribute to the decrease of the spread of infections and intra-hospital diseases.

References:

(1)https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nhds/1general/2010gen1_agesexalos.pdf

(2)https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/003335490712200205

(3)https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/article-abstract/1733452