Medical Net
Dangerous multi-drug-resistant bacteria are also developing immunity to hospital disinfectants and antiseptics, according to new research presented today at the Society for General Microbiology’s 155th Meeting at Trinity College Dublin. Some of the most worrying microbes around, the drug-resistant bacteria known as MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) have been discovered in heavily disinfected hospital locations such as catheters and on the disinfectant soap dispensers used in wards.
“As with the misuse of antibiotics, if bacteria are exposed continually to small amounts of the disinfectants and antiseptics which are supposed to kill them, they will eventually develop tolerance to them,” says Karen Smith from the University of Strathclyde who carried out the study. “Any bacteria that become tolerant to these common disinfectant and cleaning agents pose a huge threat to public health.”
The scientists discovered that different bacteria and different strains of the same bacteria have different levels of resistance to disinfectants and antiseptics. The researchers have found genes in some strains of MRSA which allow the bacteria to make pumps in their cells which remove the disinfectants from the cell to avoid damage.
