Antibacterial wipes can spread superbugs: study

Antibacterial wipes can spread superbugs: study

news.yahoo.com

LONDON (Reuters) - Disinfectant wipes routinely used in hospitals may actually spread drug-resistant bacteria rather than kill the dangerous infections, British researchers said on Tuesday.

While the wipes killed some bacteria, a study of two hospitals showed they did not get them all and could transfer the so-called superbugs to other surfaces, Gareth Williams, a microbiologist at Cardiff University, said.

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I never really considered the consequences of these wipes. I have recently been wary to the idea of super bugs due to a distant relative contracting one while in hospital for something unrelated.

I guess this is something to remain aware of.

We really need to find a bigger gun.



news.yahoo.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

[edit on 4/6/2008 by SilentShadow]

There is another reason I learned you shouldn't use any antibacterial wipes. They make your immune system less resistant to the bugs you ARE killing, and then when you forget to use one, you transfer the bacteria into your suppressed immune system, greatly increasing the chance of infection.
Case in point-
my ex-wife used them from the time they came out and made the kids do the same.
Now me, when I was a kid, used to eat dirt, dog food, worms, you name it.
As an adult I have greatly reduced my intake of these items. (I hope)
What's my point?
My ex-wife and the kids, to this day, get sicker, more often than I do. They get the sniffles, low grade fevers, coughs and aches al the time.
I do not use the wipes, only good ole' soap and water and a lot of scrubbing. The last cold I had was in 2000.
Moral-
Throw those wipes away and everybody get some mud pies and kibbles & bits!

I think I remember reading that if they shanged stanless steel surfaces to copper that would help a lot, where bugs could survvive for hours on the steel they only last minutes on the copper.

Interesting about the wipes though - makes sense, if they don't kill the particular bug then they can only spead it in the same way a damp cloth would.

The wipes were designed to give you an external source for the "feeling" of clean...of which you had until you were told that you may not be.

The key, conspiratorially, is not a physical agent...it is social identification.

Seriously...if you consider that the air transmits billions of different combinations of atomical matter, right up to bacterial, then you only need consider that you have always been infected.

The more you focus on matters that stimulate your interest and social interaction...the more that an antiseptic washing can be realized as something that really just spreads around the unsundry.

Antiseptic hand gel/wipes....do you want live or 'dead' bacteria/germs on your person?

Running water....it's where it's at...

Thats funny because when I went to the grocery store yesterday they had provided wipes at the front by the carts to clean them off. This is the first time I have ever seen wipes provided by the grocery store.

at the local food city they have the wipes next to the buggies

I have told my granny over and over that using the wipes and gel will create a stronger bug but she dont listen, the whole meglo mania im right and the man on the Civil Defence propaganda is right syndron