Surfaces, including floors, can act as a source of contamination for human pathogens (including bacteria and viruses) in hospitals. Pathogens can be transferred from these surfaces to patients or infection-relevant surfaces (e.g. surfaces in the vicinity of patients, such as bedsteads, bedside tables, medical equipment) and instruments via hands and nursing aids or through dust and air turbulence.

It can be reasonably concluded that surface cleaning and disinfection plays a significant role in reducing nosocomial infections. Since floor surfaces make up by far the largest proportion of all surfaces and, in addition, their germ load is many times higher than that of other surfaces, floor cleaning and disinfection are of particular importance.

The type, scope and frequency of cleaning and disinfection procedures in hospitals are determined by hygiene specialists or the hygiene commissions. It is recommended that at least daily maintenance cleaning is carried out on floors in hospitals (mostly coated elastic floors).

Leading hygienists as well as the German Society for Hospital Hygiene recommend that surfaces in patient environments, such as floors, should be routinely disinfected. However, after disinfecting maintenance cleaning, recontamination with pathogens occurs very quickly due to permanent walkover.

Currently, there are no efficient methods to ensure the sustainable hygiene of resilient floor coatings, which are mainly installed in hospitals. The research project involved the development of bioinspired coatings for the sustainable hygiene of resilient floor coatings.

These bioinspired coatings are partially dissolved during daily maintenance cleaning, releasing bioinspired antimicrobial agents, so called peptide mimetics. Such peptide mimetics are based on the structures of natural antimicrobial peptides produced by a variety of organisms (e.g. microorganisms, insects, plants, amphibians, birds, fish, mammals and humans) as part of their defence mechanisms.

Unlike their natural counterparts, peptide mimetics can be produced inexpensively on an industrial scale. The peptide mimetics released from the bioinspired coatings during maintenance cleaning lead to the inactivation of pathogens: between two decontamination cycles, pathogens that come into contact with the coating are immediately inactivated (antibacterial or antiviral effect).

In the case of contamination with high concentrations of pathogens (e.g. in the form of potentially infectious soiling), a disinfecting effect of the coating is initiated during maintenance cleaning or local removal under the application of a cleaning agent.

The research report is available on request from FRT.