To help reduce the incidence of hospital-acquired infections, Vero Technologies has offered its plastic and metal enclosures and panels doped with Biomaster, a silver-based anti-microbial additive in the material, which reduces bacteria by up to 99.99% for the active life of the medical equipments, claims the company. For the plastic enclosures, the silver ion material is added to the raw acrylonitrile butadiene styrene before the moulding process. As the additive becomes an integral part of the material, the efficacy of the protection does not diminish over time, protecting the external coatings that will inevitably degrade through normal wear and tear, routine cleaning and accidental damage, says the company. For the front panels and extruded aluminium enclosures, the anti-microbial material is added to the anodising process. The additive has been tested on 50 different species of bacteria, including the methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, E. coli, listeria, salmonella and campylobacter. The test procedure consists of inoculating test samples with a nutrient mix containing a known amount of bacteria. The samples are maintained at 37°C for 24 hours with the amount of viable bacteria colonies being measured.
