Copper oxide-based surfaces can reduce C. difficile spores
Key takeaways:
- Copper surfaces can be used reduce nosocomial infections.
- Copper-impregnated surfaces reduced C. difficile spore count by approximately 92% to 97%.
Copper oxide-containing surfaces significantly reduced Clostridioides difficile spores after 4 hours, according to study findings published in Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology.
“Using copper surfaces to reduce nosocomial infections is a rather novel concept but not too novel,” Chetan Jinadatha, MD, MPH, FIDSA, chief of the infectious diseases section of medical service at Central Texas Veterans Health Care System in Temple, Texas, and clinical professor of medical education at the Texas A&M University College of Medicine, told Healio.
“There are many copper-based surfaces from copper alloy to copper oxide-impregnated surfaces such as the one we studied that are in existence across the United States in various hospitals,” Jinadatha said. “Our hospital also has adapted this practice for decreasing nosocomial infections.”
To assess the impact of copper oxide-based surfaces on bacterial colonization — which could correlate to their impact on health care-associated infections, according to Jinadatha — the researchers inoculated control coupons containing no copper and copper coupons containing 20% copper-oxide with C. difficile spores, two with and two without 5% fetal bovine serum soil solution, which the researchers said can “approximate organic material in clinical settings.” According to the study, the researchers collected C. difficile spores after 4 hours, plated them on C. difficile growth media, and counted colony-forming units to help estimate the efficacy of copper.
Overall, unsoiled copper bedrail and copper table coupons at mean spore inoculation resulted in a 97.3% and 96.8% reduction in spore count, respectively, whereas the soiled bedrail and table coupons showed a 91.8% and 91.7% reduction, respectively.
Based on these findings, Jinadatha concluded that implementing copper oxide-based surfaces in hospitals can reduce the C. difficile spore burden in the clinical environment.
“We look forward to publishing a follow-up study on [health care-associated infection] reduction in the near future.”
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