Cholera ravaged the world in the 19th century. In Paris alone, the first cholera epidemic in 1832 killed 20,000 residents in just a few months. The disease caused diarrhea, nausea and vomiting and was highly infectious. Yet, it spared a peculiar group of people: copper workers.
As the cholera epidemics continued through the century, copper protected jewelers, brass players and other folks who worked with it from disease and they died at a rate seven times lower than the general population. They benefitted from one of copper’s most useful properties – its antimicrobial ability.
In a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers engineered a wearable antimicrobial copper nanomesh that sticks to human skin with just a touch of water. It kills microbes quickly, wiping out 99.99% of bacteria within one minute and 99.99% of viruses within 10 minutes. Could this protect patients in healthcare?
