Antimicrobial Functionality of Healthcare Textiles: Current needs, Options, and Characterization of N halamine-Based Finishes

Abstract

With the resurgence of infectious diseases, the growing problem of hospital-acquired infections has raised suspicion about the role of textiles as vectors of disease agents. Correspondingly, expectations have arisen about technological solutions to this potential hazard, in the form of functional textiles with built-in antimicrobial power to inactivate disease agents that may contaminate healthcare garments and other textile fiber surfaces and devices. We review those expectations here, with particular emphasis on the current spectrum of pathogens ideally targeted by these antimicrobial properties, the kinds of infectious disease challenges faced in contemporary healthcare workplaces, and the evidence for healthcare textiles having a role in institutional transmission of them. The options available for introducing useful levels of function to textile fibers are discussed, with special reference to new findings on rechargeable N halamine-based textile finishes, and the extent to which they may match the emerging standards for utility and performance of antimicrobial functions. Prospects for adoption of preventive measures based on protective garments and functional surfaces are reviewed, in light of the difficulties in quantifying the impact of antimicrobial textile products in an environment where there are so many contributing causes of the problem.