{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,30]],"date-time":"2026-07-30T14:17:49Z","timestamp":1785421069668,"version":"3.56.0"},"reference-count":22,"publisher":"Cambridge University Press (CUP)","issue":"8","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,6]],"date-time":"2026-07-06T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1783296000000},"content-version":"unspecified","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["cambridge.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Infect. Control Hosp. Epidemiol."],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2026,8]]},"abstract":"Abstract<\/jats:title>\n \n Objective:<\/jats:title>\n To evaluate the effect of copper-coated high-touch surfaces on environmental microbial burden and healthcare-associated infection (HAI) rates.<\/jats:p>\n <\/jats:sec>\n \n Design:<\/jats:title>\n Observational cohort study over 20 months.<\/jats:p>\n <\/jats:sec>\n \n Setting:<\/jats:title>\n Pediatric intensive care and oncology inpatient units in a tertiary care hospital.<\/jats:p>\n <\/jats:sec>\n \n Participants:<\/jats:title>\n All patients admitted to rooms with or without copper-coated surfaces.<\/jats:p>\n <\/jats:sec>\n \n Exposure:<\/jats:title>\n Spray-on copper coating applied to high-touch surfaces in patient rooms.<\/jats:p>\n <\/jats:sec>\n \n Methods:<\/jats:title>\n Patients were admitted to rooms according to routine hospital practices. Demographic and clinical data were collected for a subset of patients admitted to rooms with copper-coated surfaces and matching control rooms. Environmental samples were collected from high-touch surfaces to quantify bacterial colony counts. HAIs were identified via a surveillance database and reported per 10,000 patient days. Poisson regression and negative binomial mixed-effects model were used for analysis.<\/jats:p>\n <\/jats:sec>\n \n Results:<\/jats:title>\n \n Patients in copper-coated rooms were more likely to have an infection on admission (29.7% vs 2.9%;\n P<\/jats:italic>\n = .003). Bacterial colony counts trended lower in copper-coated rooms (rate ratio (RR) 0.74, 95% CI 0.50\u20131.08;\n P<\/jats:italic>\n = .11; absolute rate difference \u221212.25, 95% CI \u221226.12\u20132.10), with variability by surface type. HAI rates trended higher in copper-coated rooms compared to control rooms (48.2 vs 30.5 per 10,000 patient days; RR 1.58, 95% CI 0.78\u20133.20;\n P<\/jats:italic>\n = .20).\n <\/jats:p>\n <\/jats:sec>\n \n Conclusions:<\/jats:title>\n Copper-coated surfaces were not associated with statistically significant reductions in microbial burden or HAI rates. Contributing factors may include low baseline microbial load, low baseline HAI rates, variable copper alloy efficacy, short study duration, and differences between patients in intervention and control rooms.<\/jats:p>\n <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.1017\/ice.2026.10476","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,6]],"date-time":"2026-07-06T07:19:50Z","timestamp":1783322390000},"page":"786-792","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1017\/policypage","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Impact of copper-coated surfaces on healthcare-associated infections and microbial load in a pediatric tertiary care setting: an observational cohort study"],"prefix":"10.1017","volume":"47","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-4389-4281","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Quentin","family":"Michalchuk","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"The University of British Columbia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-8761-3453","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Qian","family":"Zhang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"BC Children\u2019s Hospital Research Institute"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Jun C.","family":"Collet","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Provincial Health Services Authority"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0009-7329-7224","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Susanna","family":"Piasecki","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/01jvd8304","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}],"name":"BC Children\u2019s & BC Women\u2019s Hospitals, Vancouver, British Columbia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Celia","family":"Walker","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Royal Alexandra Hospital"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Titus","family":"Wong","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Provincial Health Services Authority"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-0835-9504","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"David M.","family":"Goldfarb","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/01jvd8304","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}],"name":"BC Children\u2019s & BC Women\u2019s Hospitals, Vancouver, British Columbia"},{"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/03rmrcq20","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}],"name":"University of British Columbia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-0030-7665","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Jocelyn A.","family":"Srigley","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/01jvd8304","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}],"name":"BC Children\u2019s & BC Women\u2019s Hospitals, Vancouver, British Columbia"},{"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/03rmrcq20","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}],"name":"University of British Columbia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"56","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,6]]},"reference":[{"key":"S0899823X26104760_ref7","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1111\/jam.13681"},{"key":"S0899823X26104760_ref16","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/j.ajic.2016.03.053"},{"key":"S0899823X26104760_ref3","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1111\/j.1462-2920.2011.02677.x"},{"key":"S0899823X26104760_ref5","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1128\/AEM.02766-10"},{"key":"S0899823X26104760_ref14","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1080\/00365540601126687"},{"key":"S0899823X26104760_ref22","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1186\/1754-1611-7-8"},{"key":"S0899823X26104760_ref11","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/S1473-3099(16)30517-5"},{"key":"S0899823X26104760_ref18","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/j.ajic.2008.03.002"},{"key":"S0899823X26104760_ref21","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jhin.2022.02.007"},{"key":"S0899823X26104760_ref20","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1017\/ice.2021.52"},{"key":"S0899823X26104760_ref1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/S0140-6736(10)61458-4"},{"key":"S0899823X26104760_ref12","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/B978-0-7020-3468-8.50008-0"},{"key":"S0899823X26104760_ref15","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/j.ajic.2015.09.008"},{"key":"S0899823X26104760_ref13","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/j.ijpam.2016.10.002"},{"key":"S0899823X26104760_ref6","unstructured":"6. Copper Development Association. CDA press release: US EPA approves registration of antimicrobial copper alloys. March 25, 2008."},{"key":"S0899823X26104760_ref9","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/j.ajic.2023.02.010"},{"key":"S0899823X26104760_ref17","unstructured":"17. Chai, J , Donnelly, T , Wong, T , Bryce, E. Environmental sampling of hospital surfaces: assessing methodological quality. The Canadian journal of infection control: the official journal of the Community & Hospital Infection Control Association-Canada = Revue canadienne de pr\u00e9vention des infections \/ Association pour la pr\u00e9vention des infections a l\u2019h\u00f4pital et dans la communaute-Canada . CHICA-CANADA. 2018;33:138\u2013145."},{"key":"S0899823X26104760_ref19","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1128\/JCM.01032-12"},{"key":"S0899823X26104760_ref4","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1111\/j.1472-765X.2009.02637.x"},{"key":"S0899823X26104760_ref8","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1086\/670224"},{"key":"S0899823X26104760_ref10","first-page":"765","article-title":"Does copper treatment of commonly touched surfaces reduce healthcare-acquired infections? 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Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America","name":"copyright","label":"Copyright","group":{"name":"copyright_and_licensing","label":"Copyright and Licensing"}},{"value":"This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution and reproduction, provided the original article is properly cited.","name":"license","label":"License","group":{"name":"copyright_and_licensing","label":"Copyright and Licensing"}},{"value":"This content has been made available to all.","name":"free","label":"Free to read"}]}}