title: Copper surfaces are associated with significantly lower concentrations of bacteria on selected surfaces within a pediatric intensive care unit.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Health care-associated infections result in significant patient morbidity and mortality. Although cleaning can remove pathogens present on hospital surfaces, those surfaces may be inadequately cleaned or recontaminated within minutes. Because of copper's inherent and continuous antimicrobial properties, copper surfaces offer a solution to complement cleaning. The objective of this study was to quantitatively assess the bacterial microbial burden coincident with an assessment of the ability of antimicrobial copper to limit the microbial burden associated with 3 surfaces in a pediatric intensive care unit.
  
  
  METHODS
  A pragmatic trial was conducted enrolling 1,012 patients from 2 high acuity care units within a 249-bed tertiary care pediatric hospital over 12 months. The microbial burden was determined from 3 frequently encountered surfaces, regardless of room occupancy, twice monthly, from 16 rooms, 8 outfitted normally and 8 outfitted with antimicrobial copper.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Copper surfaces were found to be equivalently antimicrobial in pediatric settings to activities reported for adult medical intensive care units. The log10 reduction to the microbial burden from antimicrobial copper surfaced bed rails was 1.996 (99%). Surprisingly, introduction of copper objects to 8 study rooms was found to suppress the microbial burden recovered from objects assessed in control rooms by log10 of 1.863 (73%).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Copper surfaces warrant serious consideration when contemplating the introduction of no-touch disinfection technologies for reducing burden to limit acquisition of HAIs.
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, SC. Electronic address: schmidtm@musc.edu.
authors.forename: Michael G
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: Schmidt
authors.affiliation: Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, Hospital de Niños Roberto del Río, Santiago, Chile.
authors.forename: Bettina
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: von Dessauer
authors.affiliation: Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, Hospital de Niños Roberto del Río, Santiago, Chile.
authors.forename: Carmen
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Benavente
authors.affiliation: Microbiology Laboratory, Hospital de Niños Roberto del Río, Santiago, Chile.
authors.forename: Dona
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Benadof
authors.affiliation: Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, Hospital de Niños Roberto del Río, Santiago, Chile.
authors.forename: Paulina
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Cifuentes
authors.affiliation: Infection Control Committee, Hospital de Niños Roberto del Río, Santiago, Chile.
authors.forename: Alicia
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Elgueta
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, University of Chile, Santiago, Chile.
authors.forename: Claudia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Duran
authors.affiliation: School of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, University of Chile, Santiago, Chile.
authors.forename: Maria S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Navarrete
mesh_terms: D000890:Anti-Infective Agents / Q000494:pharmacology*; D001419:Bacteria / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D001424:Bacterial Infections / Q000517:prevention & control*; D002648:Child; D002677:Chile; D003300:Copper / Q000494:pharmacology*; D003428:Cross Infection / Q000517:prevention & control*; D004203:Disinfection / Q000379:methods*; D004783:Environmental Microbiology; D006801:Humans; D015278:Intensive Care Units, Pediatric; D062606:Tertiary Care Centers
chemical_list: D000890:Anti-Infective Agents; D003300:Copper
keywords: Antimicrobial copper; Environmental burden; Hospital-associated infection mitigation