In August of 2018 Dr Sacha J. Pidot et al published a report in Science Translational Medicine on the emerging resistance of Enterococci faecium bacteria in hospital infection cases.
What Dr Pidot discovered was that there is a rapidly evolving lineage of E. faecium referred to as Clade-A1 which is associated with hospital infections across five continents.
Enterococci are part of the gut bacteria we all have and they usually have a low virulence, until now where we have noticed an increase of infections associated with E. faesium which is associated with about 10% of all hospital acquired bacteremia cases world wide. These hospital strains are resistant to ampicillin, aminoglycosides and quinolones and are becoming very distinct from the non-pathogenic E. faecium strains found in the community. Dr Pidot Hypothesized that there could also be resistance to the standard hospital practice of using Alcohol based sanitizes to disinfect hands and surfaces as well.
Dr Pidot used stepped alcohol concentrations to test the resilience of E. faecium to alcohol based sanitizes. These tolerance assays showed that there is building resistance in E. faecium to the standard isopropanol based hand sanitizers with the bacteria surviving in up to 23% (v/v) isopropanol! This is alarming, further testing showed that using 70% (v/v) isopropanol used as a surface disinfectant left small colonies of the resistant strains behind which were then found to be easily transferred to hosts. If resistance continues to build we could see standard 70% alcohol based sanitizers rendered useless against E. faecium.
Luckily there are other options for both hand and surface sanitizing out there, Filtercorp Health Sanitizer powered by Zoono is alcohol free. The technology works by creating a physical barrier of microscopic crystalline spikes that mechanically disrupt the cell membrane of any cell that lands on it. Not only that, the technology remains active for up to 30 days on surfaces and for 24hrs on skin! This does not mean you don't need to clean or wash your hands, what is means is that you can be confident that if you miss an area on your hands or surface that the residual will continue to work.
Filtercorp Health Sanistizer powered by Zoono is non toxic, with a similar toxicity to vitamin C. Its safe to use on many surfaces including your skin.
If you have immuno-compromised family or are mindful of creating resistance in bacteria in the environment check out the store here at Filtercorp Health and get your Filtercorp Health Sanitizer powered by Zoono.
Increasing tolerance of hospital Enterococcus faecium to
handwash alcohols
Sacha J. Pidot1*, Wei Gao1*, Andrew H. Buultjens1*, Ian R. Monk1, Romain Guerillot1,
Glen P. Carter1, Jean Y. H. Lee1, Margaret M. C. Lam1, M. Lindsay Grayson2,3,4, Susan A. Ballard5,
Andrew A. Mahony2, Elizabeth A. Grabsch2, Despina Kotsanas6, Tony M. Korman6,
Geoffrey W. Coombs7,8, J. Owen Robinson7,8, Anders Gonçalves da Silva5, Torsten Seemann9,
Benjamin P. Howden1,2,3,5, Paul D. R. Johnson1,2,3†, Timothy P. Stinear1†
