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posted by martyb on Saturday March 02 2019, @07:11PM   Printer-friendly
from the debugging dept.

The spread of antimicrobial resistance in hospitals can be limited by sanitation methods that remodulate the hospital microbiota, leading to lower antimicrobial consumption and costs, according to a paper in Infection and Drug Resistance co-authored by two Bocconi University scholars (for the part related to costs) with University of Ferrara and colleagues from University of Udine.

In particular, an experiment conducted in five Italian hospitals using the Probiotic Cleaning Hygiene System (PCHS), a trademarked probiotic-based sanitation method, coordinated by the CIAS research centre of the University of Ferrara (www.cias-ferrara.it) , led to a 52% decrease in healthcare associated infections (HAI, a kind of infection that tend to exhibit higher resistance to antibiotics than community-acquired infections), a 60.3% reduction in associated drug consumption and a 75.4% decrease in the related costs. «The results», Bocconi University's Rosanna Tarricone, co-author of the study, says, «suggest that the introduction of probiotic-based sanitation methods can be considered as a useful component of infection prevention strategies. Money saving are only a part of the story, as HAIs affect 3.2 million people in Europe every year, resulting in 37,000 deaths».

The Internal Medicine wards of the hospitals enrolled in the study were surveyed for six months while using the conventional chemical-based sanitation method and, then, for a further six months using ecologically sustainable detergents containing spores of three Bacillus species. Overall 12,000 patients were included in the study and over 30,000 environmental samples from hospital surfaces were analyzed.

The new sanitation system was associated with a mean 83% decrease of the detected pathogens on hospital surfaces and a significant reduction (70-99.9%) of antimicrobial resistant genes. In the case of Staphylococcus aureus (Staphylococcus spp. represented up to 90% of the total surface microbiota detected and S. aureus, in particular, plays an important role in HAIs), the isolates from the post-intervention phase were 63.9-93.5% less resistant to antibiotics, depending on the antibiotic type, and those resistant to three or more antibiotics decreased by 72.4%.

The number of healthcare associated infections diminished by 52%, as detailed in another co-authored paper (PLoS ONE 13(7): e0199616), and the cost per HAI episode diminished by 45.6%, translating into the aforementioned 60.3% reduction in associated drug consumption and 75.4% decrease in related costs.

Since the analysis focused only on drug costs, «taking into account other variables, such as the length of stay in hospital, our estimates of the savings are likely to be conservative», concludes Carla Rognoni, the other Bocconi University co-author of the paper.

Journal Reference:
Elisabetta Caselli, et. al. Impact of a probiotic-based hospital sanitation on antimicrobial resistance and HAI-associated antimicrobial consumption and costs: a multicenter study Infection and Drug Resistance, 2019; Volume 12: 501 DOI: 10.2147/IDR.S194670


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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by meustrus on Saturday March 02 2019, @11:40PM (8 children)

    by meustrus (4961) on Saturday March 02 2019, @11:40PM (#809275)

    Excessive hygiene can even cause problems. As human beings we have a layer of grease on the surface of our skin. This is on purpose. It is the first line of defense against pathogens in our environment. But some cleaning products, especially those containing sodium lauryl sulfate, tend to strip away this protective layer.

    I wasn't able to find it, but I remember reading about a study that showed that rodents exposed to this chemical were then primed to develop allergies to other things they touched. It makes sense to me: if it got past the skin barrier, the immune system is likely to assume it is dangerous.

    --
    If there isn't at least one reference or primary source, it's not +1 Informative. Maybe the underused +1 Interesting?
    Starting Score:    1  point
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  • (Score: 2) by coolgopher on Saturday March 02 2019, @11:47PM (1 child)

    by coolgopher (1157) on Saturday March 02 2019, @11:47PM (#809278)

    Sodium lauryl sulfate is what you'll find in nearly all shampoos and conditioners, btw.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 02 2019, @11:52PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 02 2019, @11:52PM (#809279)

      Is the coconut version any less bad? (Sodium coco-sulfate)

  • (Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 03 2019, @02:54AM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 03 2019, @02:54AM (#809313)

    After I wash my hands I replenish the bioflora by rubbing my hands on a nugget of shit I keep in my pocket before going back to serve your Subway sandwich.

    • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 03 2019, @07:43AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 03 2019, @07:43AM (#809343)

      Reminds me of an actual exchange one of my friends (who is a health inspector) had with a restaurant employee during an inspection. He was talking with the person in charge in front of one of the sinks about how they were missing proper signage. An employee walks up and washes his hands, then proceeds to reach into his pants to adjust himself. My friend asks, "aren't you going to wash your hands after doing that?" The guy replies glibly with, "Why would I do that? I just washed them." Suffice to say, that restaurant got dinged for that one.

      While thinking of it, another funny exchange I had was when we were hanging out and his wife said she was going to the store to get something. He said, "be sure to go to HyVee." She nods and goes away. I say, "wait isn't HyVee a 20 minute round trip from here?" He says with a sigh, "Yeah, but I know what the closer store looks like in the back," and then takes a big swig of beer.

      He would also rant about how some of the rules made no sense, especially when looked at as a whole. For example, if an employee sink had a fingernail brush, the business was dinged if the employee didn't use it. However, there was no requirement to actually have said brush, so not having it wasn't punished. Therefore, over the course of the year and a half after the former rule was implemented, each establishment was dinged for the previously optional brush and removed them. Now, he says that he never sees brushes, when previously places had at least one next to each sink.

  • (Score: 2) by bzipitidoo on Sunday March 03 2019, @04:36AM (2 children)

    by bzipitidoo (4388) on Sunday March 03 2019, @04:36AM (#809324) Journal

    > I wasn't able to find it

    Yes, I've encountered this problem too. Powerful interests have motivation to suppress this kind of science. And we know that sometimes, some of them do engage in that kind of anti-social knowledge suppression. Some years ago, I saw an article in, as I recall, Science News, about an experiment in which a woman did not shower or bathe for a month. They sprayed her with some kind of beneficial bacteria that used to be very common on people in the times before indoor plumbing, when people seldom bathed more than once a week. Once the germs became established, her body odor was not too bad. I have not been able to find that article again. Although it's possible the article was pulled or not indexed, I think it's more likely that it's the terrible search functions those sorts of sites too often have. Wish I'd saved it.

    It's really crazy that in about 3 generations, we've gone from bathing once a week to daily. It's indoor plumbing that has made it possible to indulge this irrational fear of germs to excess. My grandparents did not have indoor plumbing when they were young. Had a well in the yard, with a hand pump. Was a lot of labor to have a bath. Took a lot of pumping to get enough water, then the tub of water had to be lugged into the house and set on the wood burning cook stove for a while. Keeping the fires going is another labor intensive chore-- got to chop wood and store it, and the stove and fireplaces must be regularly cleaned of ashes. And some minimal care must be taken to prevent sparks from starting a house fire. It's not just that cold water makes for a very uncomfortable bath. It could be unhealthy-- a body really could catch a chill. Then the family took turns, using the same water for everyone. Sounds pretty gross, doesn't it, using bath water that 3 or 4 others have used before your turn? Then indoor plumbing, with water heaters, made bathing comparatively effortless, and people dived right in. Can't make a radical change in habits like that without suffering a few unintended consequences.

    Another crazy change is lawn care. Before the power mower, most people simply did not mow. Yes, there were reel mowers, but they took a lot of effort, and for what? Farmers sure as heck didn't have time and energy to waste on such frivolities, there was always real farm work to be done. And cows do a pretty good job of keeping the grass short. Now you can get in trouble with the city if you let your grass get above 12 inches, or in some places, just 6 inches, and even if it's not against city ordinances, keeping a cow or a goat is a lot of bother, more trouble than using a mower.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 03 2019, @05:52PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 03 2019, @05:52PM (#809481)

    ah! so that's what they mean when the new-(now old)-age zealots talk about aura.
    the stronger the "aura" the more they glow.
    the stink brings tears to my eyes ... and yes the rainbow effect looking thru the stench induced tears makes them glow.
    -
    it's okay to carry your personal healthy "cloud of bacteria" along with you but pluuuse, if i can smell it from 3-feet away i call it chemical warfar and feel offended by your presence ...