Chemists teach old drug new tricks to target deadly staph bacteria July 31, Scientists are rushing to find effective treatments and vaccines for the COVID infections sweeping the globe. Meanwhile, social distancing and hygiene are the best defense. Emory University chemist Bill Wuest — who researches disinfectants — recently appeared on The Weather Channel to explain how washing your hands with plain soap and water can destroy the coronavirus that causes the infections, to help minimize its spread.
The effect drives protein folding, a process that alters the structures of amino acids and allows them to perform different functions within a cell. While the soap molecule tails want to avoid water, they are attracted to oils and fats. Many bacteria and viruses, including coronaviruses, are encased in a fatty acid membrane.
Even if antibiotic resistance weren't an issue, results from this study and others make you wonder if the antibacterial soaps available to consumers add much to hand hygiene. In the Manhattan households, a year of washing with an antibacterial soap didn't lower bacterial counts on hands any more than a year of washing with plain soap.
Nor did the antibacterial soap households experience fewer cold-like symptoms. That's not surprising: Colds are caused by viruses, not bacteria. Still, the finding is a useful reminder that the antibacterial soaps aren't the all-purpose germ fighters that many people expect them to be.
Don't scrub. Scrubbing can damage skin, especially if you do it a lot. The resulting cracks and small cuts give pathogens a place to grow. Keep your fingernails short. Bacteria like the area under our fingernails. Long nails make it more difficult to keep those areas clean. Use hand lotions, especially during the winter. Keeping the skin of your hands intact is essential to good hand hygiene.
Don't be in such a hurry. It takes about a minute to properly wash and dry your hands. The hot new products in hand hygiene are alcohol-based rubs, sold as "hand sanitizers. The big advantage of the alcohol-based cleansers is that you don't need water you just rub the stuff on your hands or a towel, so they can be used anywhere, not just in the bathroom.
Politicians use them on the campaign trail see box , and we've spotted bottles on people's desks and in their cars. Although many surgeons still scrub in the way seen on television, some have switched to an alcohol-based foam, transforming that iconic image of hand hygiene.
In his book, Sen. Barack Obama says President Bush is an enthusiastic user of hand sanitizers. Obama describes a brief conversation he had with the president during a visit to the White House. Perhaps this is one area of bipartisan agreement. According to The New York Times, Obama now keeps his own bottle of an alcohol-based cleanser in his travel bag. Alcohol's killing power comes from its ability to change the shape of denature proteins crucial to the survival of bacteria and viruses.
By itself, alcohol would completely dry out people's hands, so various skin conditioners are added. Alcohol does a superb job of getting rid of bacteria and even some viruses. In all but a few trials, alcohol-based cleaners have reduced bacterial counts on hands better than plain soap, several kinds of antibacterial soap, and even iodine.
But alcohol doesn't kill everything: bacterial spores, some protozoa, and certain "nonenveloped" viruses aren't affected. That's why it shouldn't be the only cleaner available in hospitals or other health care settings, according to Dr.
Duncan Macdonald, a surgeon in Glasgow, Scotland, who has studied hand hygiene. Macdonald says hospitals where he has worked go back to soap and water during "winter vomiting outbreaks" caused by nonenveloped viruses. To be effective, the alcohol-based rubs need to come into contact with all the surfaces of your hands — back, front, in between the fingers, and so forth.
For that reason, studies have shown that using small amounts — 0. Macdonald reported study results in that showed coverage with an alcohol-based gel improved considerably when he had hospital staff members double the amount they used from 1.
In another study, Dr. Macdonald found that coverage also improved if staff members saw the areas they missed under an ultraviolet light and were then shown the six hand washing steps designed to maximize coverage, regardless of the type of cleanser see illustration.
At the Health Letter, when we measured a squirt from a bottle of Purell hand sanitizer, it was 0. So keep in mind that the way we actually use alcohol-based products may not be leaving our hands quite as germ-free as we suppose. On the other hand pun intended , their convenience may mean people will clean their hands more often, especially if they're on the go, so hand hygiene might improve over all. Macdonald sees no need to use alcohol rubs at home: "I use regular soap and hot water and have no intention of throwing out my pleasant-smelling lotions for alcohol rubs.
Most of the germs around the home have come from us and live with us in perfect harmony. Soap alone is fairly good at removing dirt and germs from our skin; however, it doesnt remove or kill all of the microbes that live on us. Antibacterial soaps are increasingly popular because they are marketed as killing the bacteria on us when used.
The goal of antiseptic soaps is to prevent the bacteria from reproducing, limiting the amount of bacteria present on a person's skin after using an antibacterial soap. Theoretically, less bacteria should mean less risk for infection or illness. Side note: Its important to remember that we have microorganisms that live on us that are necessary for our own survival.
These good microbes are also affected by antimicrobials. The difference between regular soaps and antiseptic soaps are the antibacterial compounds triclosan and sometimes triclocarban. Triclosan and is also found in a lot of other goods, including cosmetics, toothpaste and plastic used in toys, kitchen and table utensils. Triclosan and triclocarban are hydrophobic, so they dont dissolve well in water, but do go through fatty substances, like the membranes of bacterial cells.
Once they are in microbes cells, triclosan poisons a specific enzyme enzymes are proteins that have particular functions, think of them as cellular machinery that is used in making microbes cell membranes. Humans dont have this enzyme, so triclosan doesnt poison us. One molecule of triclosan permanently disables this microbial enzyme, which is why triclosan is such a strong antibiotic action even at very low concentrations. Triclocarban has a similar molecular structure, and probably kills microbes like triclosan does.
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