Disinfectants 'train' superbugs to resist antibiotics (BBC)

Disinfectants could effectively train bacteria to become resistant to antibiotics, research suggests.

Scientists know bacteria can become inured to disinfectant, but research increasingly shows the same process may make it resistant to certain drugs.

This can occur even with an antibiotic the bacteria has not been exposed to.

The latest study, which focused on a bacteria common in hospitals, calls for a rethink of how infections are managed within healthcare settings.

Scientists from the National University of Ireland in Galway found that by adding increasing amounts of disinfectant to cultures of pseudomonas aeruginosa in the lab, the bacteria learnt to resist not only the disinfectant but also ciprofloxacin - a commonly-prescribed antibiotic - even without being exposed to it.
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more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8427399.stm




If this sounds like a big "DUH!", try re-reading that fifth para again. Bacteria treated with drug A eventually became resistant not only to that drug, but to the much more sophisticated & selective drug B, which they had NOT been treated with previously.

If drug A and drug B operate in the same manner, it's logical that resistance to one grants resistance to the other also.

Disinfectants tend to be fairly crude and nonselective -- they just kill all microorganisms in their path using fairly harsh chemicals. Antibiotics are (usually)much more subtle and selective -- the beta-lactams, e.g. various Penicillins and Cephalosporins, interfere with the construction of the cellulosic cell walls in bacteria and so are strictly speaking "anti-botanicals".

After reading up on Cipro, it appears to be stunningly unselective, harming anything with DNA, including the occasional patient. Perhaps that would make such an effect more likely:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ciprofloxacin#Mode_of_action

survived straight clorox. our 'cleanliness' is gonna kill us. i avoid anything that says anti-bacterial.