Dear Colleagues,

Whilst strategies have been devised to combat multidrug-resistant bacteria and reduce antibiotic usage, it has become increasingly clear that airborne transmission also poses a serious risk. The COVID-19 pandemic has taken over 900,000 lives worldwide, with those numbers expected to continue to grow as the beginnings of second waves are being observed in many countries. The COVID-19 victims who made it through following weeks and weeks on anaesthesia and/or hooked to mechanical ventilator machines in hospital ICUs are expected to suffer from post-treatment effects and extensive recovery time. Whilst scientists around the world are racing against the clock in their attempts to develop efficient vaccines to combat the infectious disease, concerns over the lack of available technologies to prevent cross-contaminations and to reduce the transmission rate should not be neglected.

In addition, hospital-acquired infections (HAIs) and ventilator-acquired (VAP) infections are diseases that only develop after/during patient hospitalization. The increased rate in HAIs and VAP infections (up to 40%) is also turning into an alarming concern due to cross-contaminations of equipment shared by an increased number of patients and their prolonged stay in hospitals. The countless number of possibilities that the situation can worsen has created an urgent need for fast development in microbial diagnostic methods, antimicrobial and antiviral therapies, along with prevention technologies, such as antimicrobial filters and electrostatic devices. Regardless of whether this research and development is carried out in the pharmaceuticals, biomedical or engineering sectors, they share communal aims, that is, to improve quality of patient care and to save lives.  

This Special Issue of the journal Applied Sciences on “Antimicrobial and Antiviral Strategies” aims to bring together all possible research ideas and analytical findings to tackle current issues over disease transmissions and treatments.

You may choose our Joint Special Issue in JoX.

Dr. Yuen-Ki Cheong
Prof. Dr. Arisbel Cerpa Naranjo
Guest Editors

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• antimicrobial agents
• antiviral agents
• multidrug-resistant bacteria
• antimicrobial nanoparticles
• microbial diagnostics
• microbial detection
• plasmonic nanoparticles
• antimicrobial technology and methodology
• natural antimicrobial components
• hospital-acquired infection (HAI)
• ventilator-acquired pneumonia (VAP) infections
• coronavirus COVID
• biomedical sciences
• engineering and technology