Revolutionary New Uniform To Stop MRSA Spread

Revolutionary uniform to halt super bug

A Staffordshire company is developing a revolutionary new nurse's uniform in a bid to stop the spread of killer hospital superbugs. Stafford-based Addmaster has developed an additive which is 99.9 per cent effective against deadly MRSA bacteria, and now it plans to use the product in hospital clothing. The company is working with the Birmingham Heartlands NHS Trust, regional development agency Advantage West Midlands and the Design Council to product outfits for nurses which will kill harmful bacteria on contact.

Government figures show MRSA - Methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus - was responsible for 800 deaths in the UK in 2002, while thousands more patients were infected. Some estimates say as many as 100,000 people are affected by MRSA every year, with the very ill, the elderly and people with open wounds at most risk.
Paul Morris, managing director at Addmaster, said: "UK hospitals are very hygienic, but if even only one per cent of cleaning is missed it could kill people. "There is a significant increase year on year in deaths related to MRSA, and the feedback was are getting from our customers is that this is a life-saving product." MRSA microbes have become resistant to normal antibiotics, but in tests, Addmaster's product removed almost all of the harmful bacteria by releasing electrically charged silver ions - and the bug shows no signs of developing an immunity to it. Addmaster already supplies anti-MRSA wall and floor coverings, door handles, mattress covers and stationary to NHS trusts across the UK.

Birmingham Heartlands will now carry out clinical tests on prototype uniforms, MR Morris said scrupulous cleanliness would still be the primary way of isolating MRSA, but he believes the new uniforms will be a valuable "safety net". He added: "Independent tests have shown the product to be 99.9 per cent effective against MRSA, and we know we can add it to both man-made and natural fibres."
Dr Peter Gowland, head of biological sciences at Staffordshire University, welcomed Addmaster's development. Dr Gowland said: "Silver has long been established as being antibacterial, so it has a sound basis in fact. "I would also thing it's unlikely that MRSA would develop resistance to it. "But it would have to be used as just one part of a general cleanliness campaign."

Source - The Sentinel, August 2004

Biomaster is a registered trademark of Addmaster, based in Stafford UK. Addmasteris Europe's leading supplier of performance additives for a wide range of applications and industries. By working in partnership with its customers and focussing on research and development, highly innovative additives have been created and successfully introduced into many manufacturing environments. Addmaster's advanced products are being used by many of the world's industry leaders in the plastics, paper, paint, textile and coating industries.
Addmaster, founded in the year 2000, sees its major objective as capitalising on the lack of innovation which exists in these industry sectors, and has won many business awards for innovations in product development and marketing.