SPECIALLY STAINED GLASSES TO RESIST HOSPITAL 'SUPER BUGS'
A glass staining technique that is of hundred years old to invent a material that repels microbes and fungi which are known as 'Hospital Super Bugs' has been superbly devised by a team of researchers from Aston University in Birmingham in the U.K.
They applied a staining glass technique to develop a safer medical grade material.
This material is defined by the lead researcher Richard Martin that the new stained glass has potent and efficacious antibacterial and anti-fungal properties and it could be an economical alternative to other materials that we currently use in hospitals as medical tools.
Thus the doctors can reduce a person's risks of infections while in the hospital stay.
A bioactive phosphate glass is created in this research. This glass is able to interact with biological tissues. The glass is stained with a chemical cobalt oxide which is useful as a pigment that generates blue tints.
According to the researchers, cobalt oxide can kill any microbes which are otherwise resistant to antibiotics.
The microbes which are considered as 'Hospital Super Bugs' are E.Coli, Candida albicans, Staphylococcus aureus which may become methicillin resistant-Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA).
The glass provides localized delivery at the infection site to stop infections.
Generally, the superbugs microbes once they infected they protect themselves with a thick complex biofilm surrounds to the site which is much difficult to tackle.
How The Glass Works:-
The researchers report in the journal 'ACS Biomaterials' the new material is made by exposing the glass stained with a minute quantity of cobalt oxide, to the extreme heat of over 1000 degrees centigrade and quickly cooling it to prevent crystallizing.
The making process is repeated several times with various quantities of cobalt oxide.
They then tested this material to show its effects on microbes.
They ground the stained glass into powder and mixed it with the microbial strains in the laboratory.
They found that the glass stained with the maximum quantity of cobalt oxide kills E.coli within 6 hours, and C.albicans within a day; reduce 99% of the S.aureus in 24 hours to zero.
They explained that the metal ion stained in the glass kills the microbe by rupturing and damaging their thick protective wall.
In the future, the hospital can use this glass as a part of hospital tools that comes in direct contact with human tissue inside the hospital including in biodegradable filling agents and catheters.
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