Antibacterial resistance

[pawsies]

Is anyone else concerned by the prospect of bacteria becoming resistant as a result of everyone using hand sanitizer/antibac wipes etc?

I don't think it's just Covid we need to worry about. I'm worried about what comes after.
I mean antibac doesn't even kill Covid.

The last thing we need is superbugs arising from this pandemic. What are your thoughts?

Alcohol based antibacterial products do kill covid though (minimum 60% alcohol)

With how hand sanitizer and anti-bac wipes work it's nowhere near as easy for bugs to develop resistance when compared to antibiotic resistance. So no, it's not something I'm overly worried about.

I mean antibac doesn't even kill Covid.

Yes, yes it does, as long it’s a minimum of 70% alcohol 🤦‍♀️ I wish people would stop spouting stuff they have no idea about.

anti bacterial products (soap, alkohol etc) kill bacteria mechanically which is a different working method than antibiotic medicines.

but I agree that gp not seeing patients directly might result in more antibiotics prescriptions 'just in case' which could become an issue in the future.

That's not u8e antibiotic reistance works. The alcohol content of sanitisers will almost always work to kill bacteria and viruses. It breaks down the bacteria/virus in a different way from antibiotics which we ingest. They cant develop resistance to cleaning products, not in the same way.

There is always the possibility of an extremophile. There are bacteria which can survive extreme temperatures which would otherwise kill all lifeforms, not sure if there are any which survive being rubbed in alcohol and chemicals.

Bottom line though, we don't need to worry about this. Antibiotic resistance is a different thing.

You're comparing biological reactions, which bacteria can evolve around to mechanical methods which are pretty solid and arent going to stop working.

I work in infection control - hand sanitisers and alcohol wipes aren't really associated with high levels of resistance, they become somewhat 'tolerant' but often temporarily so. There are many chemicals used for sanitation that have been used for many years in hospitals and resistance hasn't arisen. Tolerance has been shown in studies but at a much lower concentration of alcohol and not in a clinically relevant situation.

Superbugs are called superbugs because they are reistance to antibiotics; medication. This works inside the body.

Superbugs are not resistant to cleaning; if hospitals have an outbreak, that's why the have to properly clean. Because cleaning still kills superbugs before they enter the body.

YANBU.

As the pandemic was looming back in Feb I was abroad and listening to LBC a lot, for my sins, to find out what was going on. One show had some academic professor of cleaning on from one of the big London unis who said that:

a) alcohol gel actually kills good bacteria as well as bad and creates a vacuum for horrendous bacteria to grow, which they've seen in studies. He said he'd never use gel and if he does he then washes his hands as soon as he can get to a sink

and

b) he also said because of the way people incorrectly use bleach (ie diluting it) we are actually encouraging super viruses and bacteria to grow, because they're becoming resistant to the diluted bleach (and may therefore eventually evolve to resist bleach completely).

Fucking terrifying.