St Francis Private Hospital situated at Mullingar in Ireland replaced more than 100 of its door handles with copper handles in an attempt to reduce the spread of superbugs like MRSA after teaming up with Copper International. This was done after a research carried out at Selly Oak Hospital in Birmingham showed that copper can reduce contamination from 90 to 100%. This happens because the Clostridium difficile microbes die at a much faster rate after coming in contact with copper than with stainless steel.