Health : Beware of Savvy Superbugs

 

We use disinfectants to kill bacteria on surface to prevent their spread. If the bacteria manages to survive it and go on to infect patients, antibiotics are used to treat them. But a research team from the National University of Ireland in Galway found that by adding increasing amounts of disinfectant to laboratory cultures of pseudomonas aerugirosa, the bacteria could adapt to survive not only the disinfectant but also Ciprofloxach, a commonly prescribed antibiotic. They found that the bacteria that became resistant thus, had developed the ability to pump out antimicrobial agents from the bacterial cell more efficiently. But what makes the bacteria disinfectant - resistant or ciprofloxocin - type anti - biotics specifically. So now the scientists are trying to investigate the effects of using more than one type of disinfectant on promoting antibiotic - resistant strains. In another study, British bacteriologists have claimed that washing hands in hospitals can actually spread the disease - fact, one is more likely to pick up infections in the process. In the meanwhile, let us also act wisely. When one of our dear ones is hospitalised, better spend less time in the hospital so that we neither catch an infection not we disturb the patient.