While hand sanitizers are popular enough on their own, apparently they¡¯re also favoured in a few hospitals at least. Unfortunately, researchers have now determined that this has had the adverse effect of strengthening bacteria exposed to this over long periods.
Researchers from the University of Melbourne studied bacteria samples gathered from two hospitals in Australia between 1997 and 2015. They found that, over time, the bacteria seemed to be getting better at surviving the purifying alcohol in the hand sanitizers being used there.?
Even worse, as the hospital stepped up its sanitizer usage to improve sanitation, the bacteria ironically seemed to get even stronger at resisting its effects. This was confirmed by another series of experiments involving mice, showing the bacteria was actually developing its tolerance to alcohol over time, creating a drug-resistant strain of the pathogen.
Infectious disease expert Paul Johnson and microbiologist Timothy Stinear leading the study wrote, ¡°We have proposed here that the significant positive relationship between time and increasing alcohol tolerance is a response of the bacteria to increased exposure to alcohols in disinfectant preparations and that the more tolerant strains are able to displace their less alcohol-tolerant predecessors.¡±
The study itself came to be after the team noticed an uptick in infections contracted in local hospitals, coinciding with them attempting to improve sanitation with hand sanitizers. While the hygiene product was certainly killing germs like Staphylococcus aureus and MRSA, it was strengthening others like Enterococci bacteria. These are usually harmless bacteria found in our stomachs, but which have the capability to carry infections and wreak havoc on immunocompromised patients.
One particular species, Enterococcus faecium, is the main source of hospital infections in Asia, Europe, Australia, and the US, thanks to its resistance to many powerful antibiotics, built up by a gradually increasing tolerance to sanitizer alcohol.