The healthcare environment is recognized as a source for healthcare-acquired infection. Because cleaning practices are often erratic and always intermittent, we hypothesize that continuously antimicrobial surfaces offer superior control of surface bioburden.

To evaluate the impact of a photocatalytic antimicrobial coating at near-patient, high-touch sites in a hospital ward.

The study took place in 2 acute-care wards in a large acute-care hospital.

A titanium dioxide-based photocatalytic coating was sprayed onto 6 surfaces in a 4-bed bay in a ward and compared under normal illumination against the same surfaces in an untreated ward: right and left bed rails, bed control, bedside locker, overbed table, and bed footboard. Using standardized methods, the overall microbial burden and presence of an indicator pathogen (Staphylococcus aureus) were assessed biweekly for 12 weeks.

Treated surfaces demonstrated significantly lower microbial burden than control sites, and the difference increased between treated and untreated surfaces during the study. Hygiene failures (>2.5 colony-forming units [CFU]/cm2) increased 2.6% per day for control surfaces (odds ratio [OR], 1.026; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.009–1.043; P=.003) but declined 2.5% per day for treated surfaces (OR, 0.95; 95% CI, 0.925–0.977; P<.001). We detected no significant difference between coated and control surfaces regarding S. aureus contamination.

Photocatalytic coatings reduced the bioburden of high-risk surfaces in the healthcare environment. Treated surfaces became steadily cleaner, while untreated surfaces accumulated bioburden. This evaluation encourages a larger-scale investigation to ascertain whether the observed environmental amelioration has an effect on healthcare-acquired infection.

Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol 2018;39:398–404

To explore the trends in infection control peer-reviewed journals, mainstream media, and blogs written by infection control professionals

Narrative and scoping reviews

Narrative and scoping reviews were performed to identify trending infection prevention and control topics from international journals, national news websites, newspapers, and so-called grey literature throughout 2015. Data were analyzed using word frequencies, and results are displayed in word clouds.

For 2015, our search identified 6 news websites with a total of published 116 articles, 71 articles from selected newspapers, and 214 publications from infection control websites. In total, 1,059 journal articles were initially identified; 98 articles were anonymous and thus were excluded, leaving 961 articles in the reviews. The terms ‘superbug’ and ‘antibiotics’ were most commonly used in titles of news websites and newspapers, whereas the terms ‘infection’ and ‘prevention’ were most commonly used in infection control websites or blogs. The word frequency differences among the 4 selected journals reflected their respective specialties.

In infection prevention and control, the integration of a range of mediums is necessary to best serve public interests. Whether the aim is advocacy, general health information dissemination, or warnings of imminent risk, health researchers have access to multiple forums with different strengths through which to influence public risk perceptions and responses.

Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol 2017;38:1098–1102