It has been demonstrated recently that direct treatment of relatively smooth surfaces by non-thermal dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) in air is highly effective in killing bacteria and fungi. The key aspect of the direct treatment was shown to be contact with electrical charges. These results hold significant promise for medical applications of direct DBD such as sterilization of wound surfaces.1 However, a typical DBD in air can be highly non-uniform, particularly on topographically non-uniform surfaces such as most of the living tissues. As a result, it is not clear that pathogens can be destroyed as effectively on the recessed areas between the ridges of real tissue by the conventional DBD in air.