J Bacteriol 2007,189(6):2540–2552.PubMedCentralPubMedCrossRef 54. Spratt BG, Maiden MC: Bacterial population genetics, evolution and epidemiology. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 1999,354(1384):701–710.PubMedCentralPubMedCrossRef AZD2014 mw 55. Thompson FL, Iida T, Swings J: Biodiversity of vibrios. Microbiol Mol Biol Rev 2004,68(3):403–431.PubMedCentralPubMedCrossRef Competing interests The authors declare that they have no competing interests. Author’s contributions SU did the experimental design, performed the experiments, analyzed the data and drafted the manuscript. TA and SH participated in study design, data analysis and drafting the manuscript. GG participated

in selection of strains and drafting the manuscript. MK, LS and UM took part in preparing and performing the experiments. All authors have read and approved the manuscript.”
“Background Hospital Acquired Infections (HAI) have exacted a heavy toll worldwide with over 2 million patients annually contracting an infection in the US [1], being one of the leading causes of death in the US behind cancer and strokes [2]. In Europe, out of 3 million HAI [3] approximately

50,000 resulted in death [4], and in Australia more than 177,000 HAI occur per year [5] whilst in the click here province of Quebec, Canada the rate of HAI are estimated to be around 11% [6]. The HAI rates in developing countries are significantly higher [7–9]. According to the USA Center for Disease Control (CDC) some of the predominant HAI organisms are Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Enterobacter species [10]. Methicillin resistant S. aureus accounts for 50% of HAI associated with multidrug resistant pathogens [10]. The Extended Prevalence of Infection in Intensive Care (EPIC II) study demonstrated a 50% HAI

rate in ICU patients sampled from over 75 countries and two of the most predominant organisms were resistant Staphylococci and BCKDHA P. aeruginosa[11]. HAI are associated with considerable mortality, morbidity and costs [2, 12]. Recent intervention efforts including improvement of national surveillance, use of aggressive antibiotic control programs, healthcare staff education for improved hygiene, isolation of infected patients, use of disposable equipment, cleaning and disinfection of environmental surfaces and equipment, improvement of cleaning equipment and sanitary facilities, increase in nursing and janitorial resources and better nutrition [13–17], have been shown to reduce HAI rates. However further supplemental interventions are required. The link between contaminated hard surfaces to HAI has been demonstrated [18–28] and an antimicrobial protected touch surface would assist in reduction of pathogen buildup upon touch surfaces as long as that activity can be indisputably demonstrated.