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The BBC reports that the world is on the cusp of a 'post-antibiotic era'. A new mutation of bacteria in China has something "dubbed the MCR-1 gene", that prevented colistin - the antibiotic of last resort - from killing bacteria.
Chinese scientists identified a new mutation, dubbed the MCR-1 gene, that prevented colistin from killing bacteria.
The report in the Lancet Infectious Diseases showed resistance in a fifth of animals tested, 15% of raw meat samples and in 16 patients.
[...] Resistance to colistin has emerged before. However, the crucial difference this time is the mutation has arisen in a way that is very easily shared between bacteria.
There's plenty to blame - pumping livestock full of them for "preventative measures", doctors prescribing them for colds and flus, and people not finishing a course when they are prescribed them - but the future currently looks bleak.
(Score: 2) by quadrox on Friday November 20 2015, @09:38AM
Hot water does not help: http://info.debgroup.com/blog/bid/337804/Is-Hot-Water-More-Effective-for-Washing-Hands [debgroup.com]
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Friday November 20 2015, @07:07PM
Warm water is more effective than cold water because oils dissolve more easily in warm water. It also drys out the skin faster, so you need to use oils afterwards to prevent rough skin, which makes you MORE succeptible to bacteria. This is also why soapand water is more effective than just water. I'm quite skeptical of the value of anti-bacterial soaps, except in special circumstances. It strikes me as an evolutionary pressure we don't want to be applying, so we can kepp the anti-bacterials for where they're really needed. Alcohol is more reasonable, but again needs to be followed by hand cream.
Another reason warm water is more effective is because people are more willing to use it.
P.S.: Please note I did NOT say "hot water". Injuring the skin is not a good idea.
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(Score: 3, Interesting) by Yog-Yogguth on Saturday November 21 2015, @04:45PM
Yes the anti-bacterial soaps and skin cream/moisturizers are completely counterproductive for most people in most situations, even when they "help". It's good for those cases where they're actually needed although I can't think of any off the top of my head for the anti-baterial soaps (cheap sterile one-use disposable gloves are great) and most creams and moisteurizers are snake oil and/or cosmetics, most of them are very harmful but not harmful enough to be illegal.
Except for harsh soaps (and shower gels, shampoos etc. which are about the worst of anything and applied using your hands) I'm wondering if perhaps most skin dryness (that isn't from other causes) comes more from poor drying than anything else: air drying doesn't amount to much and encourages drying out the skin to evaporate off all the water, paper towels are almost always too rough and abrasive while simultaneously being flimsy and again encouraging over-use, and soft fabric towels (which are the best for drying) are avoided in most public places because too many people don't wash properly in the first place and wipe most of the dirt off on the towel(s) rather than down the sink.
The east asian (Japanese only?) thing about carrying your own small "drying hankerchief" for use after washing your hands in public places is probably something that should be copied by the rest of us.
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(Score: 2) by Yog-Yogguth on Saturday November 21 2015, @04:08PM
Your link predominantly compares 40-45 degrees Celsius and 60 degrees Celsius temperatures. 60 sounds insane to me and makes me wonder if it wouldn't be enough to over repeated use cause 1st degree burns i.e. the least severe burns (normal sunburns are 1st degree burns, if you get transparent/clear blisters it's 2nd degree). Remember this is a liquid we're talking about, it has a lot more thermal mass and capacity than even humid air like you could find in a sauna. The hottest consistent weather [wikipedia.org] on Earth is less than 60.
45 is hot, maybe a bit too hot, about 40 to 42 sounds right and will feel hot without being painful in any way. Close to 36.7 or 36.8 is usually considered the normal average human body temperature.
Water at below body temperature will require progressively more and harder scrubbing to less and less effect and quickly becomes just as counterproductive and silly as the ridiculously high temperatures. 20 degrees Celsius sounds far too low but 30 should be okay if people scrub (with the water and soap) very thoroughly. At 20 you'll have to change towels a lot because that's where most of it (micro and macroscopic grime and the microfauna & microorganisms that love it) will end up if it leaves your hands at all. In general I dont' see any benefits to avoiding hot water except for people who are suffering from dry skin in winter or who wash their hands a lot more than ordinary (one would hope people usually figure it out on their own: if someone needs "skin products" from washing their hands rather than other underlying causes like illnesses, cleaning very hard to remove dirt/oils/paint etc., or superdry environments like some processing and storage jobs then they're doing something wrong).
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