We think we’re fighting infection in man and keeping down bacteria by using antiseptic hand soaps and disinfecting cleaners in the home and hospital. But, in fact, in the very same bacteria we’re promoting resistance to essential antibiotics that doctors use to cure those bacterial infections.
DHI is now part of a 4-year international research project aimed at understanding how antiseptics and disinfectants bring about antibiotic resistance. The case is clear for a few of the disinfectants, or biocides as they’re called in the European Union. For instance, the chemical triclosan is a very common disinfectant/biocide world-wide. When a bacterium meets triclosan in the home or hospital environment, the bacterium can resist triclosan’s killing effect by establishing a pump in the cell membrane that pumps every molecule of triclosan out that diffuses in. Unfortunately, scientists have recently found that exactly the same pump is what makes bacteria resistant to antibiotics used against tuberculosis and against staph. skin infections. Now it is important to be able to predict which disinfectants should be avoided in order to avoid antibiotic resistance. This is what the DHI project will attempt to do.
DHI’s research project runs from 2009 to 2012 and is with partners at the University of Copenhagen, the Danish Technical University, the Hvidovre Hospital outside of Copenhagen, plus some meat industries and producers of disinfectants.