It is well known that infections that arise particularly from hospitals are causing problems to the medical industry. Some experts claim that health problems arising due to infections of medical equipments like catheters or even as simple as stethoscopes are increasing.
These products are made either from plastics or rubbers that do not contain any specific additives to prevent microbial attack. It is well known that special anti microbial additives are available that can make these plastics resistant to microbes and prevent infections. The antimicrobial additives such as silver ions can be incroporated in plastics through masterbatches. These silver ions have to be released gradually so as to have longer effectiveness. Different suppliers use different carriers such as Zeolite or Zircunium based ceromic ion exchange resin. Some of the most well known antimicrobial additives like Aglon from Agion company, Irgaguard B-5000 from Ciba or Alpha scan from milliken Chemicals are increasingly finding applications in the medical plastics. These products are very expensive (almost US $100/kg) and Significantly increase the cost of finished end products. However, the increasing awareness of problems of hospital infectives would eventualty compel the medical industry to seek and use only those plastic products that are antimicrobial and can prevent infection.
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