Disinfectants promote resistant bacteria

Disinfectants in bacteria

Irish scientists are finding another factor in the development of antibiotic resistance in bacteria

Scientists from the Department of Microbiology of the National University of the Republic of Ireland in Galway have found in a study that the use of disinfectants in bacteria the Resistance to antibiotics can promote.

The scientists around Dr. Gerard At Fleming studied the highly resistant bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa. This is a bacterium that is common in hospitals. It was discovered in 1900 by the German botanist Prof. Walter Migula (1863-1938). It is to be found preferentially in damp areas, like in waters, but also in our sanitary rooms, in water pipes, on fruit and fruits, in the gut of healthy people, etc.,. According to the Hospital Infection Surveillance System (KISS) of the National Reference Center for Surveillance of Nosocomial (from the Greek: Nosokomeion = Hospital) Infections (NRZ), an institution dedicated to bringing together all the information needed to combat infectious diseases from all relevant In Germany, about 10 percent of all hospital infections are caused by Pseudomonas aeruginosa. According to a WDR report, every year around 1.5 million patients in Germany become infected with bacteria and around 40,000 people die as a result.

hazards
In the hospital, of course, devices for dialysis, humidifiers, inhalers, etc., a source of danger dar. It was already known that the bacterium is resistant to some disinfectants, but not that the disinfectants help make it resistant to antiobiotics, with which it so far still had no contact if the disinfectant does not kill it. Then the genetic makeup of the bacteria changes to become resistant to certain antibiotics.

Demand for more knowledge
The scientists around Fleming exposed Pseudomonas aeruginosa to increasing doses of benzalkonium chloride. This is an ammonium compound, which due to its preserving and disinfecting effect is often found in disinfectants (eg in Sagrotan), but also in eye and nose drops and more recently also in our clothing and is able to fight against fungi, bacteria, algae, some Viruses, etc. proceed. If the bacteria were not completely killed and then exposed to the antibiotic ciprofloxacin, they exhibited resistance to the latter. So far, it has been thought that the unchecked use of antibiotics itself leads to resistance, but Fleming et al have their report in one of the leading specialist magazines in the microbiological field, the Journal „Microbiology“, published in October 2009, found a new sensational mechanism. They rightly demand that on this basis further substances must be investigated, which lead to a resistance of bacteria against antibiotics, as with the bacterium MRSA (multi-resistant Staphylococcus aureus),could lead. (Thorsten Fischer, Naturopath Osteopathy, 30.12.2009)