Through the overuse and misuse of antibiotics, doctors and farmers have unwittingly spawned or accelerated the development of strains of bacteria that survive conventional antibiotic attack. To keep drugs potent, many in the medical community preach judicious use of antibiotics and teach patients to take their full course of medication. The marketing of antimicrobial soaps, hand lotions, sponges and kitchen surfaces has increased in recent years. These novel products contain bacteria-busting compounds such as zinc pyrithione , hydrogen peroxide or, most commonly in soaps, triclosan . But such germ killers could perversely lead to more harmful strains in the home, according to Stuart B. Levy , a medical researcher at Tufts University.
Any use affects what's out there.
Hospitals, where both antibiotics and germs are abundant, have long been recognized as unintentional breeding grounds for resistant bacteria. Two hospitals in the same city may be confronted with two different sets of resistance problems, depending on individual patient populations and the way antibiotics are used. Domestic antibacterials are distinct from medical antibiotics, but they may pose a parallel danger. Levy cautions that just as every hospital develops its own antibiotic-resistance profile, resistance within an individual home's microbial ecology could be altered by the misuse of home antibacterial products. The risk runs from hardier E. coli to tougher Streptococcus pyogenes and pneumococci .