Disinfectants unleash superbugs: threat to hospital acquired infection.

It is a common practice to clean hospital equipments,floors,laboratories and other settings using disinfectants as part of a measure to control the spread  of infectious diseases.Most of these disinfectants make use of antibacterial agents to effectively kill microorganisms. But recent study has implicated that the continual use of these disinfectants has given rise to strains of bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics and the disinfectants itself.

This phenomenon was discovered by researchers at National University of Ireland in Galway.they added increasing amounts of disinfectants to cultures of P. aeruginosa.  P. aeruginosa are bacteria  that have the potential to infect people with weak or suppressed immune system and often people with cystic fibrosis and diabetes.The reslts showed that the cultured bacteria were not only able to resist the disinfectant but were also found to be tolerant to a class of antibiotics known as ciprofloxacin which is an antibiotic prescribed by most doctors.Antibiotic resistance is acquired by bacteria as a result of gene mutation which gives it a selective advantage to survive when exposed to the antibiotic.Once such a gene is generated, bacteria can then transfer the genetic information in a horizontal fashion (between individuals) by “Plasmid” exchange. If a bacterium carries several resistance genes, it is called multiresistant or, informally, a superbug.The worrying fact was that the bacterium had developed resistance to the antibiotic without even being exposed to them.The scientists also tried using non-lethal doses of the disinfectant to cultures and found that the bacteria adapted well and were able to survive and grow.

The implications of this study are serious suggesting that the bacteria could escape the action of disinfectants used in hospitals and also go on to infect people.this infection which is usually controlled with the use of antibiotics can also be resisted by the bacteria.Reserchers stress that the use of more than one type of disinfectant in combination could probably put a check on the emergence of resistant forms of the bacteria.