 |
 |
|
|
|
MRSA in School Sports and Classrooms Sanisys is testing a service for schools, doctor's offices and nursing homes in select markets in February of 2008. This service utilizes the SS-20 Sanitizing System and Formula D2 Sanitizing Solution to Stop MRSA and other infectious pathogens on high contact surfaces. Used by hospitals and food processing plants, the SS-20 Sanitizing System uses CO2 gas to deliver a non-flammable, environmentally safe and effective sanitizing on surfaces without corrosion. Computers, phones, toys, furniture and other high touch surfaces can be sanitized without wiping or rinsing and are dry in minutes. Schools can use the service to reduce the potential for MRSA in sports and classroom environments. Doctors can sanitize exam rooms, waiting areas, equipment and phones without damage to equipment or disruption of service to patients. Previously only available to SS-20 System owners, the sanitizing capability will be offered to schools and doctors offices. "People who know that they need to sanitize at a higher level now have a solution that is affordable and managed by experts", states Chuck Carman of Sanisys. "With the track record demonstrated by our product in healthcare and food processing industries, we are ready to offer a service for people who want sanitizing without the investment in training and equipment."[TOP] Antibacterial products may be helping to create superbugs. Tuberculosis, food poisoning, cholera, pneumonia, strep throat and meningitis: these are just a few of the unsavory diseases caused by bacteria. Hygiene—keeping both home and body clean—is one of the best ways to curb the spread of bacterial infections, but lately consumers are getting the message that washing with regular soap is insufficient. Antibacterial products have never been so popular. Body soaps, household cleaners, sponges, even mattresses and lip glosses are now packing bacteria-killing ingredients, and scientists question what place, if any, these chemicals have in the daily routines of healthy people. Traditionally, people washed bacteria from their bodies and homes using soap and hot water, alcohol, chlorine bleach or hydrogen peroxide. These substances act nonspecifically, meaning they wipe out almost every type of microbe in sight—fungi, bacteria and some viruses—rather than singling out a particular variety. Soap works by loosening and lifting dirt, oil and microbes from surfaces so they can be easily rinsed away with water, whereas general cleaners such as alcohol inflict sweeping damage to cells by demolishing key structures, then evaporate. "They do their job and are quickly dissipated into the environment," explains microbiologist Stuart Levy of Tufts University School of Medicine. Unlike these traditional cleaners, antibacterial products leave surface residues, creating conditions that may foster the development of resistant bacteria, Levy notes. For example, after spraying and wiping an antibacterial cleaner over a kitchen counter, active chemicals linger behind and continue to kill bacteria, but not necessarily all of them. When a bacterial population is placed under a stressor—such as an antibacterial chemical—a small subpopulation armed with special defense mechanisms can develop. These lineages survive and reproduce as their weaker relatives perish. "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger" is the governing maxim here, as antibacterial chemicals select for bacteria that endure their presence. As bacteria develop a tolerance for these compounds there is potential for also developing a tolerance for certain antibiotics. This phenomenon, called cross-resistance, has already been demonstrated in several laboratory studies using triclosan, one of the most common chemicals found in antibacterial hand cleaners, dishwashing liquids and other wash products. "Triclosan has a specific inhibitory target in bacteria similar to some antibiotics," says epidemiologist Allison Aiello at the University of Michigan School of Public Health. When bacteria are exposed to triclosan for long periods of time, genetic mutations can arise. Some of these mutations endow the bacteria with resistance to isoniazid, an antibiotic used for treating tuberculosis, whereas other microbes can supercharge their efflux pumps—protein machines in the cell membrane that can spit out several types of antibiotics, Aiello explains. These effects have been demonstrated only in the laboratory, not in households and other real world environments, but Aiello believes that the few household studies may not have been long enough. "It's very possible that the emergence of resistant species takes quite some time to occur…; the potential is there," she says. Apart from the potential emergence of drug-resistant
bacteria in communities, scientists have other concerns about antibacterial
compounds. Both triclosan and its close chemical relative triclocarban
(also widely used as an antibacterial), are present in 60 percent
of America's streams and rivers, says environmental scientist Rolf
Halden, co-founder of the Center for Water and Health at Johns Hopkins
Bloomberg School of Public Health. Both chemicals are efficiently
removed from wastewater in treatment plants but end up getting sequestered
in the municipal sludge, which is used as fertilizer for crops,
thereby opening a potential pathway for contamination of the food
we eat, Halden explains. "We have to realize that the concentrations
in agricultural soil are very high," and this, "along
with the presence of pathogens from sewage, could be a recipe for
breeding antimicrobial resistance" in the environment, he says. Further, an expert panel convened by the Food and
Drug Administration determined that there is insufficient evidence
for a benefit from consumer products containing antibacterial additives
over similar ones not containing them. "What is this stuff doing in households when we have soaps?" asks molecular biologist John Gustafson of New Mexico State University in Las Cruces. These substances really belong in hospitals and clinics, not in the homes of healthy people, Gustafson says. Of course, antibacterial products do have their place. Millions of Americans suffer from weakened immune systems, including pregnant women and people with immunodeficiency diseases, points out Eugene Cole, an infectious disease specialist at Brigham Young University. For these people, targeted use of antibacterial products, such as triclosan, may be appropriate in the home, he says. In general, however, good, long-term hygiene means
using regular soaps rather than new, antibacterial ones, experts
say. "The main way to keep from getting sick," Gustafson
says, "is to wash your hands three times a day and don't touch
mucous membranes."[TOP] |
|