According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, approximately 1.7 million Americans are infected each year when hospitalized and about 100, 000 of them lose their lives. For long, scientists have urged better hygiene in an attempt to control hospital spread of germs, however increasingly medical firms are leaning on anti-germ coatings to help.
The Food and Drug Administration approved in November sale of the first breathing tube coated with silver, a metal widely famous for repelling bacteria. Ventilator patients are increasingly prone to pneumonia.
According to a multi-hospital study conducted by the FDA, 7.5 percent of patients provided a regular breathing tube were found to be infected by pneumonia, compared to 4.8 percent of those provided C.R. Bard Inc.'s latest Argento ventilation tube.
Baxter HealthCare Corp. announced this Fall FDA approval of a silver-coated IV catheter connector that has specifically been created to help stop bacteria from collecting at this entry point to the bloodstream.
