A recent study has warned that resistance to antibiotics could pose a major threat to public health. Antimicrobial technology could offer a way to reduce this risk.
The rise of antibiotic resistance
In recent years antibiotics have increasingly been used to treat relatively trivial infections. So much, infact, that they are becoming less effective against more serious infections because the bacteria that cause them have become resistant to treatment.
As a result, people are dying from common, previously treatable infections. In 2019 more than 1.2 million people died worldwide from infections caused by antibiotic resistance, or “AMR”, according to a study published in The Lancet.
Poorer countries are worst affected by AMR, the highest being sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia with 24 deaths in every 100,000.
How AMR can be prevented
The “hidden pandemic” of AMR poses such a risk to public health that officials recommend urgent investment in bringing new antibiotics to market.
More appropriate and careful use of existing antibiotics is also a key to maintaining their efficacy.
Crucially, infection should be prevented in the first place. This is where antimicrobial technology like NitroPep can play a part.
Antimicrobial technology and stopping infection
NitroPep’s antimicrobial technology stops the spread of bacteria by breaking the chain of surface transmission.
This happens when bacteria comes into contact with a surface treated with NitroPep’s antimicrobial coating. The bactericidal agents contained in the technology kills 99.9% or log 3.0 reductions of pathogens such as MRSA, E.coli and salmonella, in under one minute. Log 5.0 reductions (99.999% kill rates) have been recorded after 15 minutes.
Killed instantly, the bacteria cannot be transmitted to anyone who subsequently touches that surface. NitroPep is unique in that the coating maintains its efficacy for the life of the item it is applied to.
The antimicrobial coating can be applied to any regularly handled surface, such as door handles, or used on antiviral air filters to prevent airborne transmission.
By stopping the spread of bacteria in public places, antimicrobial technology has an important role in the fight against antibiotic resistance.
NitroPep’s antiviral technology also stops the spread of SARS CoV-2 ( the virus responsible for COVID-19) by breaking the chain of airborne and surface transmission with log 5.0 reductions being recorded in Class3 laboratory studies in under one minute.