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Bacteria are becoming resistant to alcohol-based disinfectants:
Because of the growing numbers of so-called superbugs, hospitals have introduced more stringent cleaning routines. Part of the regimen involves alcohol-based disinfectants, such as hand rubs, positioned in and around hospital wards. Since their introduction, there has been a significant reduction in the number of hospital-based infections. Containing 70 percent isopropyl or ethyl alcohol, alcohol-based hand rubs kill bacteria quickly and effectively.
Over recent years, researchers have noted a steady rise in the number of serious infections caused by one particular drug-resistant bacterium — Enterococcus faecium. Despite the wide use of alcohol-based disinfectants, E. faecium is now a leading cause of hospital-acquired infections. Dr. Sacha Pidot and his colleagues at the University of Melbourne in Australia set out to understand whether this increased infection rate might be because the bacterium is growing resistant to alcohol. Their findings were published this week in the journal Science Translational Medicine [DOI: 10.1126/scitranslmed.aar6115] [DX].
Also at Live Science.
Increasing tolerance of hospital Enterococcus faecium to handwash alcohols:
Alcohol-based disinfectants and particularly hand rubs are a key way to control hospital infections worldwide. Such disinfectants restrict transmission of pathogens, such as multidrug-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and Enterococcus faecium. Despite this success, health care infections caused by E. faecium are increasing. We tested alcohol tolerance of 139 hospital isolates of E. faecium obtained between 1997 and 2015 and found that E. faecium isolates after 2010 were 10-fold more tolerant to killing by alcohol than were older isolates. Using a mouse gut colonization model of E. faecium transmission, we showed that alcohol-tolerant E. faecium resisted standard 70% isopropanol surface disinfection, resulting in greater mouse gut colonization compared to alcohol-sensitive E. faecium. We next looked for bacterial genomic signatures of adaptation. Alcohol-tolerant E. faecium accumulated mutations in genes involved in carbohydrate uptake and metabolism. Mutagenesis confirmed the roles of these genes in the tolerance of E. faecium to isopropanol. These findings suggest that bacterial adaptation is complicating infection control recommendations, necessitating additional procedures to prevent E. faecium from spreading in hospital settings.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by bzipitidoo on Sunday August 05 2018, @03:16AM (11 children)
This happens all the time. People latch onto one proven disinfectant, and overuse the heck out of it. Then all the germs start evolving resistance to that one thing, and soon it's not much good any more.
I've been thinking that we need a more intelligent, biological approach. Don't try so hard to kill everything, ease up on the scorched earth tactics. Instead give harmless competitors to the pathogens a little help.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Sunday August 05 2018, @03:31AM (4 children)
Let's see the little fuckers evolve nanomirrors!
How about we keep doing the scorched Earth tactics, but follow up with a spray of benign bacteria to take over the barren skin? Or encase benign bacteria in little nanoparticle shells that can withstand alcohol but dissolve as they dry. That way you could have it all in one alcohol-based sanitizer.
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 05 2018, @08:59AM
Until it mutated and made gave everyone dermatitis. Which I suppose is an improvement over being a zombie?
(Score: 2) by beckett on Sunday August 05 2018, @08:35PM (2 children)
fwiw, "benign" bacterial that make beer and wine also have some alcohol resistance. horizontal gene transfer is common between bacteria, even distantly related ones such as the general "benign" and "pathogenic" categories you're suggesting. this process is how we figure drug resistance is spread to other species. One recent emergence is E. coli that produces Shiga toxins, which was acquired by some strains of e. coli from Shigella. spp. bacteria.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Sunday August 05 2018, @08:49PM (1 child)
My suggestion is that you could wait for the alcohol to evaporate off of your hands, and then spray bacteria on them, or encase bacteria in nanoparticles (or microparticles) that are somehow protected from the alcohol, and get released after the alcohol threat is gone. The point being to crowd out strains that you don't want on the surface of your hands with strains that you are OK with.
Some complex or expensive solution may not be warranted in the home, but could be used by doctors and surgeons.
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(Score: 2) by beckett on Sunday August 05 2018, @10:02PM
as above, those are broad, amorphous categories that may have unintended consequences, such as transferring resistance to pathogenic strains. The general categories you're using are also amorphous snd subjective e.g. how do you define 'strains that you are ok with'? skin microbiomes may have different compositions between people; what is 'ok' for the doctor may not be 'ok' for a patient who is taking an immunosuppressor, etc.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by MostCynical on Sunday August 05 2018, @03:53AM (5 children)
The problem is that people *didn't* overuse plain old soap, as washing hands properly takes too long.
Alcohol is faster and easier.
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 0, Disagree) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 05 2018, @05:14AM (2 children)
The people who don't wash their hands don't get sick. It's you people who spend three hours each day washing your hands who get sick. Now, stop whining and let me eat my germ-laden lunch in peace.
(Score: 4, Touché) by tfried on Sunday August 05 2018, @06:24AM (1 child)
It seems you may be missing the key point about hand washing/disinfection in hospitals. No, it's not about the staff and visitors not getting sick.
Excessive hygiene at home is a different story altogether.
(Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Sunday August 05 2018, @10:47PM
My local supermarket supplies alcohol handwipes so people can clean the handle on their cart.
I prefer exposure to lots of different micro-organisms, so that I can develop my own immunity to them. (Obviously not including the really naughty ones. I'm not some sort of anti-vaxxer).
(Score: 2) by realDonaldTrump on Sunday August 05 2018, @09:37PM (1 child)
I would be a tremendous doctor. Because I happen to be a clean hands freak. I feel much better after I thoroughly wash my hands, which I do as much as possible. I'm a very clean person. I like cleanliness. One of the curses of American society is the simple act of shaking hands, and the more successful and famous one becomes the worse this terrible custom seems to get. I find myself thinking more and more about Howard Hughes, and even, to some degree, identifying with him. To many people today he symbolizes weirdness. He is probably doomed to be remembered as the guy with the long fingernails and the wild hair. That’s a shame, because here was a guy who at one time was movie-star handsome, a certified billionaire, and a genius in several fields. Hughes had it all, and judging by the number of beautiful ex-girlfriends who are still writing books about him, he seemed, for a while at least, to be living life TO THE HILT. Yet the pressure of being a larger-than-life figure was apparently so mind-boggling that it gradually drove him crazy. Too bad!!!
(Score: 2) by beckett on Sunday August 05 2018, @10:08PM
If this is your raison d'être it sounds like you'd make a better nurse [sciencedirect.com]