Healthcare-associated infections and overuse of antibodies, neither are good since they create resistant strains of bacteria. Keeping this observation in mind, a new type of medical gloves have been developed which kill the microbes without using any chemicals. The gloves have been developed after six years of research by University of Nottingham microbiologist, Prof. Richard James. He was working with a group of colleagues from medical glove manufacturer Hartalega Malaysia and antimicrobial research and development company Chemical Intelligence UK.
The researchers used a proprietary technology which is described as “a new active microorganism-killing molecule”. The molecule is present right in the material which means that no antibodies need to be applied to the surface of the gloves. In the lab tests, the gloves killed up to 99.9 percent of bacteria within 5 minutes of contact.
The future plans are to produce the gloves at “low cost”. This way, there will be hospitals around the world which can afford it easily. The gloves have been launched in Europe recently.