A microbiological evaluation of SiO2-coated textiles in hospital interiors: The effect of passive coatings on the cleaning potential of interior textiles

The use of passive coatings could be a new solution to improve the cleaning potential of interior textiles in hospitals. In these years, the scepticism toward the use of antibacterial textiles in the health care sector is emerging, and in the Nordic countries, the implementation success is confined. From this perspective, the purpose of this paper is therefore to address focus on alternative passive coatings that without actively killing the bacteria provide a hydrophobic and easy-to-clean textile surface. The paper relates to an in-situ study evaluating the effect and cleaning potential of SiO2-coated textiles compared to traditional textiles and a hard plastic surface as a reference material. Through the study, arranged at an outpatient lung department at Hospital Vendsyssel, Denmark, five different surface materials were installed on hospital chair armrests and sampled with microbiological contact plates through a three-week period. By determining the level of contamination on these surfaces, the study illustrates that the SiO2-coated textile is possible to clean to an acceptable level below the critical limit value of 2,5 Colony Forming Units (CFU) per cm2. In comparison, the traditional textiles were only cleaned to the acceptable level in 56% of the microbiological controls, while the regular hard plastic surface only had acceptable levels of contamination in 25% of the samplings.