Antimicrobial wipes

Hospital acquired infections (HAI) are estimated to cost the NHS approximately £1 billion a year.

Antimicrobial wipes are relatively new products, increasingly used as part of infection control regimens in healthcare settings.

Specifically, wipes are used for the decontamination of surfaces by decreasing or killing microbial pathogens that contribute to hospital acquired infections.

Developing a testing protocol

The Cardiff University team, led by Professor Jean-Yves Maillard, developed a tailored testing protocol for evaluating the efficacy of antimicrobial wipes. This enabled the design, evaluation and marketing of novel products that contributed to significant revenue for the UK industry partner.

The procedure enabled the accurate evaluation of antimicrobial wipe performance and delivered quantitative reporting outcomes, including:

percentage of microbial bioburden removed from surfaces
percentage of transfer prevented from wipes to surfaces and
percentage of kill of target microorganisms retained within the wipe.

Not only is the new procedure recommended by the Royal College of Nursing and forms the basis of improved standards for efficacy testing, but it has allowed manufacturers and end users to effectively understand product efficacy.