Let's talk about Healthcare Fabrics

Clinical Director’s perspective of health care fabrics:

There are so many stunning fabrics to choose from when making selections for furniture in health care settings but when we know that pathogens can survive for prolonged periods on textiles and can be transferred to and from the skin1, what controls can we put in place to minimise infection?

Infection prevention and control is multi faceted and antimicrobial textiles may have a role within this – their popularity is certainly increasing with these textiles often used in furnishings in aged care settings.  The need for well designed studies to evaluate their effectiveness in clinical settings has been raised whilst examining benefits (such as reduction of infection transmission) and any risks (such as increased antibiotic resistance, false sense of security with staff implementing less cleaning practices, any effects from exposure and increased costs)2.   

In the meantime, what do we know about commonly used antimicrobial fabrics in Australia and how can we use them?  We checked with some popular fabric houses that we use here at de Fiddes and this is what they had to say:

Materialised – Crypton is a mill applied finish which offers the assurance of antimicrobial technology to prohibit the growth of moulds such as Aspergillus niger and bacteria such as Staphylococcus aureus and MRSA as well as viruses such as Hepatitus.

Warwick – With anti-microbial testing was carried out at Australia’s Monash University, the Tritan fabric range was shown to inhibit a wide range of microorganisms and dust mites. 

References for Healthcare Fabrics

1.       Nicoloro, JM, Wen, J., Queiroz, S., Sun, Y. Goodyear, N. 2020. A novel comprehensive efficacy test for textiles intended for use in the healthcare setting. Journal of Microbiological Methods, 173. doi.org/10.1016/j.mimet.2020.105937.

2.       Schettler, T. 2016. Antimicrobials in hospital furnishings: Do they help reduce healthcare-associated infections? Healthcare Without Harm.  Retrieved from: https://noharm-asia.org/sites/default/files/documents-files/3854/Antimicrobials%20Report%202016_1.pdf