Copper surfaces can kill hospital microbes, study finds

Paul Taylor

Most people check into a hospital with the hope of getting better. However, many patients pick up serious infections during their stay in the health-care system. Despite fastidious cleaning and the routine use of gloves by staff, the number of hospital-acquired infections in Canada has swelled to an estimated 250,000 cases a year, resulting in 8,000 to 12,000 deaths. Other developed countries are facing a similar threat to patient safety.

But U.S. researchers now think they have hit upon a relatively easy way to overcome this serious problem – cover frequently-touched surfaces with copper. Bacteria and viruses can’t survive for very long on the metal, thereby reducing the risk of harmful bugs spreading from one person to another.

“It is a simple, elegant solution,” said Michael Schmidt, a professor at the Medical University of South Carolina.

Dr. Schmidt led a pilot study in which copper was used instead of stainless steel and plastic in a wide range of objects in the intensive-care units of three U.S. hospitals. Copper covered the bed rails, tray tables, call buttons, IV poles and chair arms.

When the researchers took culture swabs from the copper surfaces, they found the level of microbes had “dropped well below what is considered to be a risk,” Dr. Schmidt said. “And it doesn’t need any intervention other than normal cleaning.” The findings were presented at a recent medical conference in Atlanta.

Previous lab studies have shown that copper and copper alloys, such as brass and bronze, kill 99.9 per cent of bacteria within two hours.

Scientist aren’t sure why copper has such powerful anti-microbial properties. But Dr. Schmidt suspects that copper’s killing power is related to the fact that the metal is a tremendous conductor of electricity. “What I think is probably happening is that microbes are literally short-circuiting,” he said, adding that bacteria would lose electrons if they remain in constant contact with copper.

He noted that some astute ancient civilizations used copper as a purifier. For instance, the Phoenicians stored water in copper pots to make it drinkable.

The research community’s interest in copper was rekindled about a decade ago, when a nursing study found fewer patient infections in hospital rooms with copper door handles. The copper industry has sponsored some of the initial research. But Dr. Schmidt’s latest study was funded by the U.S. military.

He is now planning to do a large clinical trial to determine whether reducing the number of microbes on hospital surfaces actually translates into fewer infections. “Hospital administrators are reluctant to make capital purchases [of copper equipment] unless we can demonstrate a clear-cut benefit to patients.”

There is, of course, a limit to what can be replaced with copper. But he sees no reason why a lot of commonly-used hospital equipment can’t be made partly of copper – including computer mice and keyboards.

Vaccine scare fallout

A doctor who claimed to have discovered a connection between a common childhood vaccine and the development of autism has been stripped of his license to practice medicine in his native Britain.

The General Medical Council took the disciplinary action against Andrew Wakefield earlier this week, after a lengthy investigation concluded that his research amounts to professional misconduct.

In 1998, Dr. Wakefield helped to fuel a parental backlash against vaccines by spearheading a study that linked the MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccination with the onset of symptoms associated with autism. The research was published in The Lancet, a prestigious British medical journal, adding to its credibility.

But since then, one study after another has failed to find an association between vaccinations and autism. What’s more, it’s come to light that Dr. Wakefield was getting paid by lawyers mounting a lawsuit against vaccine manufacturers on behalf of parents who believe their children were harmed by the shots. Earlier this year, The Lancet took the unusual step of formally retracting the paper.

Amid the controversy, Dr. Wakefield left Britain in 2004 and moved to Texas, where he started work as a researcher at an alternative medicine clinic.

Dr. Wakefield told the Associated Press he plans to appeal the loss of his British medical licence. On NBC’s Today Show, he said the council’s penalty is just “a little bump in the road” and reiterated his assertion that vaccines can lead to autism.

Sharks get cancer, too

A drug derived from shark cartilage does not improve the overall survival of lung-cancer patients, according to the results of a study published this week in the U.S.-based Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

The clinical trial, led by Charles Lu at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, involved 379 patients at hospitals throughout the United States and Canada. About half the patients were given the shark derivative, called AE-941 or Neovastat, while the balance got a placebo. All the patients also received standard chemotherapy and radiation treatment.

“Clearly these results demonstrate that AE-941 is not an effective therapeutic agent for lung cancer,” Dr. Lu said in a statement. “So, too, these findings have to cast major skepticism on shark-cartilage products that are being sold for profit and have no data to support their efficacy as cancer-fighting agent.”

Even so, an editorial accompanying the study argues that AE-941 may still “be worthy of further investigation” because all the questions posed by the alternative treatment can’t be answered by a single study.

Popular interest in shark-cartilage supplements took off in the early 1990s with the publication of the book Sharks Don’t Get Cancer by William Lane. The book’s title, however, is a bit misleading because sharks do, indeed, get cancer.

AE-941, made by Quebec-based Aeterna Zentaris Inc., is available only to patients in clinical trials and cannot be purchased commercially.