#FOTD367 Superbugs getting punchdrunk
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7 سال پیش
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Superbugs getting punchdrunk
You know
Superbugs getting punchdrunk
You know those alcohol hand sanitisers that kill off 99.9999999% of all germs well that number is slowly starting to reduce.
The alcohol based sanitisers were introduced to hospitals in the early 2000’s which really helped to stop the spread of drug resistant bacteria like MRSA methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and VRE vancomycin-resistant enterococcus
They are, as the names suggest resistant to antibiotics (methicillin and vancomycin) and it was assumed they would not be able to develop resistance to alcohol boy were we wrong
It's a fair assumption because the alcohol basically dissolves the outer membranes of the bacteria
So what has happened since the alcohol based sanitisers were introduced, MRSA rates have gone down yippeee but VRE rates have increased 5 fold.
This is a massive problem because over 50% of infected patients die.
SO Timothy Stinear at University of Melbourne and Lindsay Grayson at Austin Hospital have suggested that VRE bacteria are becoming tolerant to alcohol
They used paper wipes which had been soaked in alcohol based sanitisers and used them to disinfect mouse cages that had been coated with VRE bacteria
They used two samples of bacteria one from 1998 and one from 2012 the alcohol was 35% less effective at killing the 2012 bacteria based on the proportion of mice that then became infected with VRE.
So they then collected 139 samples from Melbourne hospitals from 1998 and 2015
They found the more recent bacteria were 10 times more tolerant to alcohol than the older ones
There is thought to be a mutation in the alcohol processing gene which may have made their membranes more impervious to alcohol
Now don't panic the hand rubs are still effective for now but when there is only a little left and the amount of alcohol used to clean your hands is reduced by using a smaller amount of hand rub then it makes it easier for the slightly more tolerant bacteria to survive and tolerance to increase within the bacteria population.
The best thing you can do is used hand rub that contains another antibacterial chemical as well like chlorhexidine so there is a two pronged method of killing bacteria.
Good old soap works as well to actually just get the bacteria off your skin.
Watch this space in the future
Are you worried about evolving bacteria?
Have you or someone you know of been affected by MRSA or VRE?
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7 سال پیش
در تاریخ 1396/11/21 منتشر شده
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