Some Bacteria Are Becoming 'More Tolerant' of Hand Sanitizers, Study Finds

I am impressed. I was under the impression that this stuff works because alcohol kills basically everything.<p>Looks like we need to start washing with Everclear now.

Most people don&#x27;t use it correctly anyway. You&#x27;re supposed to soak your hands so they&#x27;re dripping, rub together and let it evaporate. You see most people just using a small dot on their palms.<p>I&#x27;ve also read about a certain rare bacteria that thrives on a food additive. I cant recall what it was but I remember it was really expensive to make the suddenly a new methods made it cheap. The bacteria rose as the cost of the additive went down.

&gt; The researchers used different strengths of alcohol concentrations to combat the bacteria, starting with 23 percent. Eventually, at a 70-percent alcohol mixture, the bacteria were conquered. Typically, hand sanitizers are 60 percent alcohol.<p>Is it simply a matter of using higher concentrations of alcohol? Or is it possible that bacteria could evolve resistance right up to 100%?

I always find it fascinating how much the mechanical aspect of hand-washing makes it more effective than many other methods of sterilization.

&quot;have hard shells that make it difficult for alcohol to kill them&quot; It is likely that such adaptation has a cost. Is alcohol resistant bacteria more benign inside the human body?

I wish this article had provides a link to a comparison between the different hand sanitizing methods.<p>OK, so alcohol-based sanitizer isn&#x27;t great. How does it compare to plain old soap and water? What about foaming liquid soap? How does the big gun of Hibiclens work out nowadays?

I for one would like to know what happens to the cellulose carrier. It always seemed creepy to me to slather that over your hands, leaving a nice food source for new bacteria once the alcohol evaporates.

Would it be too much just to install little hand washing sinks in front buildings? I don’t need the germs to die. They can live in the sewer all day long. I just want them off my hands.

Dupe of <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=17677617" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=17677617</a>

we need a new &quot;manhattan&quot; project to tackle the problem of bacterial resistance. Seriously we should be investing hundreds of billions of dollars into research into more effective means of controlling infectious diseases. We&#x27;re on the brink of reverting to the times before antibiotics where common infections that are now easily treatable will be deadly and debilitating again. It&#x27;s terrifying.

Text-only version:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;text.npr.org&#x2F;s.php?sId=635017716" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;text.npr.org&#x2F;s.php?sId=635017716</a>

I wonder what the mechanism is? Biofilm?

As someone who does home dialysis and relies on alcohol hand sanitizers this kind of worries me.

Hand sanitisers in offices etc. should be outlawed. There&#x27;s simply no reason for their existence and using them probably weakens your immune system anyway. They are useful for situations like camping but that is all.

That&#x27;s fine. Some bacteria is actually good for you. Even trace amounts of &quot;bad&quot; bacteria will help build your immune system so you don&#x27;t need to kill all bacteria.