Anti-bacterial soap and 'superbugs'

Anti-bacterial soap 'helps superbugs' - Telegraph

Extract:

"Expensive anti-bacterial washes are no better at cleaning hands than ordinary soap and may actually encourage superbugs, scientists have warned.

A team in America has carried out the first known comprehensive analysis of whether anti-bacterial soap works better than plain soap.

Allison Aiello of the University of Michigan School of Public Health and her team found that washing hands with an anti-bacterial soap was no more effective in preventing infectious illness than plain soap and did not clear dangerous bugs such as E. coli.

They found that because of the way triclosan, the main active ingredient in many antibacterial soaps, reacts in the cells, it may cause some bacteria to become resistant to commonly used antibiotics such as amoxicillin.

Resistance to common anti-biotics is the key feature of superbugs, such as MRSA, which kill around 5,000 people in hospital every year. The team found that some strains of E. coli developed drug resistance when exposed to triclosan soap."