US’ Sereneview Armor has launched curtains that embed Aegis Microbe Shield to prevent hospital-acquired infections. Aegis is a durable, non-leaching full spectrum antimicrobial with a proven track record. It forms a colourless, odourless, positively charged polymer that attracts, electrocutes, and ruptures a microbe's negatively charged cell membrane.

Sereneview Armor fabric recently passed testing with the SARS-COVID-2 virus. This virus shares the same RNA genome, responding the same as COVID-19. The tests used a control fabric without finishes to compare with the Sereneview Armor fabric. The microbiological solutions lab tested the material at fifteen-minute and one-hour intervals.

After the lab applied feline coronavirus to both fabrics, the Control fabric showed a 48.91 per cent viral load reduction after fifteen minutes versus 60.44 per cent for the Armor fabric. After one hour, the Control fabric showed a 71.27 per cent reduction of the viral load versus 97.91 per cent with the Armor fabric. Both swatches were exposed to UV light in a previous test, mimicking a similar protocol using UV-C machines. The control fabric showed an 81.58 per cent reduction in the viral load. In comparison, the treated Sereneview Armor fabric showed a 99.95 per cent reduction in the viral load, the company said in a press release.

In addition to the extra level of protection from microorganisms that disposable and traditional cloth do not provide, Sereneview Armor curtains offer sustainability and financial return: faster room/bed turnaround, reduced landfill waste, water consumption, and laundry expense.

“Hourly wise, it’s been a lot of hours saved because my staff doesn’t have to switch out curtains every time, we have an isolation room. You can only imagine how many isolation rooms that affects. In the old protocol, after each discharge of an isolation patient, you have to take that curtain down to send it off to be cleaned. We don’t have that problem anymore. I’ve dealt with cloth curtains for six to seven years of my career. To have these at this location has been a blessing,” Brian Cotton, director of environmental services, said in a statement.

Source: Fibre2Fashion