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Care-related infections (ICAs) are acquired infections that constitute the most frequent and serious complication of healthcare and can occur in any care setting. ICAs include infections transmitted externally (exogenous), from person to person or via caregivers and the environment, and infections caused by bacteria within the body (endogenous).

The causes are manifold:

  • the progressive adoption of new health technologies, with the prolonged use of invasive medical devices and complex surgical interventions, which, while improving therapeutic possibilities and the outcome of the disease, may favour the entry of microorganisms into normally sterile body sites;
  • the weakening of the body’s defence system (immunosuppression) or serious concomitant diseases;
  • the poor application of environmental hygiene and infection prevention and control measures in the care setting;
  • the emergence of antibiotic-resistant bacterial strains, mainly due to the incorrect or excessive use of these drugs, which further complicates the course of many ICAs.

These infections have a significant clinical and economic impact because they cause a prolonged length of stay, long-term disability and increased resistance of microorganisms to antibiotics. All these factors lead to a significant increase in the expenses incurred by the healthcare system, patients and their respective families. The costs are estimated at approximately EUR 7 billion, including direct costs only. Not all ICAs can be prevented, but it is currently estimated that more than 50% can be. Most ICAs affect the urinary tract, the respiratory system, surgical wounds, systemic infections (sepsis, bacteremia). The most frequent are urinary infections, which alone account for 35-40% of all hospital infections. The people most exposed to ICAs are patients; however, staff and visitors are also at risk of contracting them. These infections are transmitted, depending on the micro-organism, through direct, person-to-person or airborne contact and indirectly by contaminated objects.

Prevention and control of ICAs in all care settings are key to reducing the impact of these infections and to reducing the spread of antibiotic-resistant microorganisms. One of the crucial points for combating ICAs is the definition and implementation of good care practices and other measures, according to an integrated programme that must be adapted to each care setting.

The key measure to prevent these infections is certainly hand washing, but hand drying should by no means be underestimated! Drying is an equally important process and can be done through paper. Paper, being made of natural cellulose fibres, can be loaded with pathogens during its production, transport and storage. As a result, an important community of bacteria can be isolated on unused paper towels and can be transferred to people after hand washing. So you who are reading this article will ask yourself, how is it possible not to have your hands constantly contaminated by microorganisms? Don’t worry, there is a solution and it is called ECO SILVER PAPER®!

Our technology, studied together with the University of Ferrara, thanks to stabilised silver ions, guarantees resilient antibacterial activity for up to 2 years after production. This is a unique feature on the market that allows us to offer an innovative product with hi-tech characteristics: ANTIBACTERIAL certified. The microbial load on Eco Silver Paper® treated paper is significantly lower than on untreated paper. Over time, bacteria present in ordinary paper tend to proliferate considerably, while articles treated with our Eco Silver Paper® active ingredient are defended and remain 100% hygienic. Each production batch of articles treated with Eco Silver Paper® is tested and verified for antibacterial activity on the paper, and the paper is also dermatologically tested. This technology can become an important tool for the prevention of these infections, capable of significantly reducing the spread of microorganisms in healthcare facilities. AND WILL YOU BE WITH US?

 


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There are many types of toilet paper packs on the shelves, why invent a new one? Was it really needed? In short, we are talking about something you use to clean yourself after having fulfilled your bodily needs and let's face it, although "necessary" they are not exactly such a "clean" topic ... Yet there are at least 3 IMPORTANT REASONS that led us to the choice to innovate this item let it become a DAILY HYGIENE DEVICE.


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Do you think that the invention of toilet paper goes back to a distant past? Whether it belongs to prehistory or at least has a few centuries?

Actually it’s not like that, it’s much younger than inventions such as the car for example, incredible but true!

If in the East there are indications that “already” at the court of Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang in the XIV (fourteenth) century paper was used to clean up after their physiological needs, in the West it had to wait almost a half millennium more before its appearance. Here is the story of its EVOLUTION.

The neolithic man, after his bodily needs, used as a system of hygiene the water of the streams or if not available he was content with leaves or twigs.

Later, the Egyptians seem to have preferred to use the sand in a mixture of fragrant oils, which they had in abundance, while the Arab and Indian peoples used the left hand (… which is why even today handing an object with that hand to an Arab is considered rude).

The Roman nobles preferred to use sheep’s wool, while in the public baths in Rome they were provided with the species of giant cotton swabs: sticks with at the end attached a sponge soaked in water.

In the Middle Ages then the peasants made do with leaves or hay, while on the ships they were content with old peaks soaked with sea water.

Monsinior Della Casa, in his Etiquette (1558) cites curtains and fabrics hanging in the lavatories called “pieces of goods”. In fact, a few centuries earlier in convents were used tears of old cassocks to clean, even in French royal palaces next to the “comfortable” were put baskets full of pieces of old fabrics or lace.

It is in the eighteenth century that the use of newspaper that obviously gave problems of irritation due to the inks of which it was soaked (“intrisa” senza seconda “n”) began to spread, some maintain that the great popularity of the printed paper was also due to this use.

It is precisely for this reason that in 1857, New Yorker Joseph C. Gayetty “invented” and promoted his Medicated Paper, a paper for hygienic use in sheets that would have avoided hemorrhoids and problems with private parts. Here the hemorrhoids were obviously not avoided but nevertheless began to spread the use of this paper among consumers because much more delicate than newspapers. “Delicate as a banknote and sturdy as a clipboard”. That was the slogan.

Gayetty’s paper was so successful that it began to be imitated by companies such as Northen Tissue, which in 1930 promoted it because it was “shrapnel-free”!

However, we have to wait until 1879 for the first production by the Scott Paper Company of paper in rolls and in 1942 in the UK St. Andrew’s Paper Mill began to produce a softer double-veiled paper that melted better in water.

In Europe and Italy, however, toilet paper was considered a luxury item until the early twentieth century, so its spread is much more recent.

And we get to today, on the shelves we find proposals of toilet paper to one, two, three up to 4 veils, fragrant, compact or soft, embossed or smooth whose composition is the cellulose fiber that can be pure or recycled in short there is something for all tastes… but we are talking about TOILET paper which should therefore guarantee total protection and respect for that delicate part of us. But is it really like that?

The first protection of our skin, especially in the intimate parts, is represented by the slightly acidic pH that represents a natural defense of our organism against the proliferation of pathogenic microbes, so it is important to preserve and respect it, aggressive or non-decontaminated elements can act as irritants and diffusers of

bacteria harm

ful to the epidermis. Thanks to the collaboration with analysis laboratories, and the development of our

innovative technology Eco Silver Paper® paper treated with natural antimicrobial active ingredient based on Silver, In 2020, the toilet paper becomes a HYGIENE DEVICE that fights contamination and irritation and respects the epidermis as a dermatologically tested.

 

V.G.


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Microbes have the ability to adhere to surfaces, whether they are made of steel, stainless steel, cast iron, glass, Formica, plastic, etc., they multiply rapidly thanks to the deposition of organic material and produce a sticky matrix that serves them as protection. In a short time they manage to form a BIOFILM, that is a protective "film" in which bacteria can protect themselves from external threats (such as our cleaning) and to profile undisturbed forming real "communities". HOW DO YOU KNOW IF YOU’RE FORMING A BIOFILM? HOW CAN ONE INTERVENE IF ONE NOTICES THAT A BIOFILM IS FORMED? HOW CAN WE AVOID THE FORMATION OF A BIOFILM?