The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) here has developed an "infection-proof fabric" to be used at hospitals to prevent hospital-acquired infections (HAIs). The development by "Fabiosys Innovations", a start-up incubated at IIT-Delhi, comes at a time when the world is dealing with the deadly coronavirus outbreak. However, the team has been working on the project for over a year with support from the government's Department of Science and Technology.According to official statistics from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, for every 100 hospitalised patients in developing countries, 10 acquire HAIs and the risk is even higher at the time of a coronavirus outbreak. The team claims to have developed an affordable, novel textile-processing technology, which converts regular cotton fabric into infection-proof fabric. "We take rolls of cotton fabric and treat it with a set of proprietary-developed chemicals under a set of particular reaction conditions, using the machinery already commonly available in textile industries. The fabric, after undergoing these processes, gains the powerful antimicrobial functionality," Samrat Mukhopadhyay, a professor at the Department of Textile and Fibre Engineering in IIT-Delhi, said."What is interesting about the Fabiosys' fabric is that even after washing multiple times, it does not lose its functionality. This fabric can be stitched into various articles such as bedsheets, the uniforms for patients, doctors and nurses and even curtains. The fabric satisfies the Indian washing standards in terms of number of washing. It is also completely non-toxic and affordable," he added. IIT has collaborated with the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) for a pilot run of the product.