1740Assessment of Antimicrobial Efficacy on New Fiber Embedded with Silver

Background. Silver has been used for years in the medical field due to its antibacterial efficacy. Silver has been applied topically to fabrics as an antimicrobial agent but the process lacks efficacy because the silver percent is too low. A new yarn which can be used to weave or knit fabrics uses novel technology to extrude the silver into the yarn fibers. This process allows the silver to physically disperse and embed, throughout the yarn and subsequently the fabric. Fabrics made with this technology do not “wash off” and is made in different strengths depending on the degree of antimicrobial activity required. The object of this study was to evaluate the antimicrobial efficacy of the innovative fabric. Medium strength antimicrobial activity fabrics were used in this study. Methods. Swatches of the 1-inch square material were placed into sterile petri dishes, inoculated with 0.1 mL of the bacteria or surrogate virus (bacteriophage MS2). Spores of the mold Trichophyton mentagrophyteswere also tested. At the contact time points of 2 and 4 hours, samples were taken and processed according to the appropriate assay for bacteria, virus or mold being tested. Results. Results are in the following table.