Self-sanitising coatings to reduce healthcare associated infections

感染是如此普遍，他们是一个永远存在的风险，以公众。随着抗生素耐药性的增加，对抗此类感染变得越来越困难。例如，医院获得性感染（HAI）增加了治疗时间，在极端情况下会导致患者死亡（据报道，在英国，估计3.5%的HAI患者死于感染，约为28，000/年）。此外，管理获得HAI的患者所产生的成本比管理没有HAI的患者高出约三倍。在英格兰，治疗住院期间感染的患者的费用为每年27亿英镑。占710万个占用床日（相当于英格兰NHS医院所有床日的21%）和一线医疗保健专业人员的79，700天缺勤。为了正确看待HAI占用的710万个医院病床日，2014年英格兰癌症患者占用了530万个病床日; 2011年英国肺部疾病与估计的610万个占用病床日相关（BMJ Open 2020;10：e033367\. doi：10.1136/bmjopen-2019-033367）。通常，引起这种疾病的微生物和病毒株通过多种方式传播，其中大多数来源于与污染表面的接触。可以对表面和材料进行各种抗菌处理，但这些处理通常在制造阶段进行，并且性能较低。表面的强力清洁效果各不相同，所使用的化学品对环境有害。该项目将研究创造一种高度抗菌表面的可行性，这种表面可以相对容易地应用于现有的建筑环境，并减少表面清洁的需要。如果这一点能够成功实现，那么将有显着的临床和经济效益，这将从减少HAI对患者，NHS和整个社会的影响中产生。

Infections are so common that they are an ever-present risk to the public. Fighting such infections is becoming continually more difficult as the resistance to antibiotics increases. For example, Hospital Acquired Infections - HAIs - increase treatment times, and in extreme cases lead to the death of a patient (an estimated 3.5% of patients who acquire a HAI are reported to die from their infection ~28,000/year in England). Furthermore, the costs incurred to manage a patient who acquires an HAI is around three times higher than that of managing a patient without a HAI. In England, the cost of treating patients infected whilst they are in a hospital is £2.7 billion p.a. and accounts for 7.1 million occupied bed days (corresponding to 21% of the annual number of all bed days across NHS hospitals in England) and 79,700 days of absenteeism among front-line health care professionals. To put the 7.1 million occupied hospital bed days attributable to HAIs into perspective, 5.3 million bed days were occupied by cancer patients in England in 2014; Lung disease in the UK was associated with an estimated 6.1 million occupied bed days in 2011 (BMJ Open 2020;10:e033367\. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2019-033367). Typically, the microbes and viral strains that cause such ill health are transmitted by a number of means, most of which originate from contact with a contaminated surface. It is possible to apply various antimicrobial treatments to surfaces and materials, however these are usually applied during the manufacturing stage and have a lower level of performance. Vigorous cleaning of surfaces has varying effectiveness and the chemicals used are damaging to the environment.The project will investigate the feasibility of creating a highly antimicrobial surface that can be applied to the existing built environment with relative ease and reduce the need for surface cleaning. If this can be successfully realised then there will be significant clinical and economic benefits which would accrue from a reduction of the impact that HAIs impose on patients, the NHS and society as a whole.