The reality embodied in the film “Contagion” is could happen?.

Madrid, 2011-October during the last years, society has been concerned at the prospect of a derivative of influenza avian pandemic, swine flu, or many other agencies. The new film contagion (which premiered on Spain on October 14), directed by Steven Soderbergh depicts terribly realistic scenes of a pandemic and its devastating effect. Bearing in mind that 80% of infections are transmitted through contact surfaces such as knobs for doors, balustrades and taps, the raised stage isn’t so far from reality.

Both campaigns developed to promote a correct washing of hands and the information provided to the citizens about the spread of viruses and bacteria through contact surfaces, have represented important steps in improving risk prevention. However, the implementation of these policies of public hygiene is still minority, even in hospitals. What more it can do to reduce the risk of infections?.

Copper and its alloys such as bronze or brass, have antimicrobial properties, i.e., if a person touches a surface or object of copper material organisms harmful bacteria, viruses or fungi, copper delete after a few minutes by reducing the risk that other healthy person touch it then and can become infected. An experiment developed at the University of Southampthon in April 2011 demonstrated the ability of copper to eliminate large numbers of bacteria MRSA in just minutes. A video on the subject you can access by clicking here.

For this reason, many hospitals around the world are already starting to use these materials in the contact surfaces. This is the case of the unit of care intensive of the Hospital General Trafford in Manchester, United Kingdom, and France, among others CIGMA. In addition, many Governments begin to analyze the possibilities to take advantage of the antimicrobial properties of copper for its application in spaces for public use as schools, nurseries, means of public transport, etc.

In this sense, there are several countries that are already beginning to use it. Chile already used in one of its metro stations brass handrails. The Sao Paulo airport, one of the busiest registers in Brazil, has also included handrails which contain copper, and two schools in Athens (Greece) have gone further, using antimicrobial copper doors to protect the health of students. Similarly, in Japan, two childcare centres have installed antimicrobial copper surfaces in the carts to transport food, knobs, handles and locks of doors, toilets and faucets.

On the Spanish copper information centre (CEDIC)

CEDIC is a professional association of companies in the basic of the copper industry in Spain that develops an essentially informative activity in two different aspects. On the one hand it promotes and supports studies or research aimed at improving the techniques of obtaining, processing and use of copper. On the other hand, it brings together all the documentation produced in Spain and in other countries, concerning the copper to publicize her.

In this line, CEDIC has established a relationship of mutual cooperation with organizations public or private, national or foreign, with parallel to their own objectives. Among others, the International Copper Association (ICA), headquartered in New York, the European Copper Institute (ECI), based in Brussels, in addition to other twenty-three similar to CEDIC centres distributed throughout the world, eleven of them in Europe.