Medi-Shower and C-TRIC

ASSESSMENT OF THE ANTIBACTERIAL PROPERTIES OF THE MEDI-SHOWER^TM HOSE

C-TRIC has undertaken numerous microbiology projects on behalf of its clients. In one such project, one of our clients asked us to assess the antibacterial properties of one of their shower components to be implemented in hospitals, namely the Medi-Shower^TM hose. The Gram-negative bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa was used in our experiments. We chose this organism as it is an opportunistic pathogen that is frequently present in hospital water systems, where it has the potential to grow relatively quickly and achieve very high cell concentrations that remain stable for long periods of time (Favero et al., 1971). To mimic the situation where P. aeruginosa is present in an ‘unflushed’ shower hose, we artificially contaminated the Medi-Shower^TM hose and a standard shower hose (the control) with an aqueous suspension (quarter strength Ringer’s solution) of the bacterium [~104 colony forming units (CFU) per ml], which was left for a maximum of 4 days at room temperature. We then compared both hoses for levels of the bacterium at t=2 hrs and t=4 days.