Silver antibacterial treatment assists with infection control

The recent national benchmark for golden staph infection rates is one of a whole host of new safety and quality measures being reported on the “MyHospitals” federal government website. This has once again raised the importance of infection control in a healthcare environment, especially after 13 hospitals failed to meet the standards in 2010/11, which was set at no more than two cases per 10,000 occupied beds.

It is proven that the main cause of the spreading of the staph infection is related to environmental exposure. It is therefore imperative that all healthcare facilities implement good cleaning and disinfection procedures in order to prevent the microbial contamination of their patients.

It is also important to point out that controlling the spread of infection is not about meeting any regulations, but more about patient safety. Federal Health Minister Nicola Roxon stressed recently: “Extra hospital beds are important but patients want to know what’s under the mattress as well.”

This rings true particularly when it comes to patients’ bedding, their mattress and the cover protecting their mattress, as this is where patients spend most of their time. Therefore, by adding an anti-microbial coating to mattress covers helps not only to protect and sustain the life of the mattress but more importantly it provides the patient with protection against bacteria such as the golden staph. This protection can be achieved by the introduction of Silver Technology.

So why silver?

There has been a lot of talk about silver and its usage as an anti-bacterial agent, especially in the healthcare sector. Silver is probably the oldest known antibacterial agent, with references dating back to the Roman days of Hippocrates, when people used to throw silver coins into water jugs to prevent microbial infection.

1. It is a broad-spectrum, antimicrobial agent.


2. It is able to exert a bactericidal effect at minute concentrations.


3. silver-based, antibacterial systems are the most environmentally sensitive in the market.

But not all Silver treatment is the same. Therefore it is important to point out that the silver ions used in Bravo™ Silver products are not of nano particle size and are held in a carrier matrix which slowly releases these ions over time. This carrier matrix has a very poor water solubility, which means that our Silver still retains its anti-bacterial property after many washings. The Bravo™ Silver has a 99.9% proven silver activity after 10 washes at 95°C, and is even longer lasting when wiped.

More reasons to use Bravo Silver

The size of silver particles used in Bravo Silver is much bigger than the nano-scale additives used in some competitors’ products. This eliminates the concerns that they may be picked up very easily and efficiently by the human respiratory system and enter the cellular membranes. Bravo Silver is even approved by FDA for food contact applications.

Bravo fabrics are also tested according to ISO 16603:2004 & ISO 16604:2004 proving the fabrics to be a complete barrier against (synthetic) blood, and against viruses.

When it comes to patient safety, you should not ignore or compromise on the importance of antibacterial properties of your mattress covers. The Bravo Silver range of mattress covering fabrics provides that confidence that you are doing the best for your patients.

BRAVO™ – the optimum choice for reliability, performance and protection.