Back in May of 2009 I wrote a post about how the overuse of antibacterial soaps was causing antibiotic resistant bacteria such as MSRA. Well it looks like there is more information out about the negative impact of the soaps.
The article on MSN talks about triclosan and its use in soaps and other household products such as toothpaste. What bothers me about the article is that the FDA says:
“…there are no grounds to recommend any changes in the use of triclosan but said some recent studies merited a closer look.“
However, what the CDC states below seems to contradict what the FDA is saying:
“Interesting laboratory findings suggest a link between this resistance in cMRSA and the use of antibacterial products.”
If antibacterial products promote the resistance of MRSA to antibiotics, isn’t that reason enough to at least take a closer look at the situation? What is also disturbing to me is that the MSN article quote also states that, “recent studies” say there may be something to look at. Well the presentation I quoted from the CDC site was from 2000. That’s ten years since the presentation was made which means it has been even longer since the research was done to show a connection between antibacterial soap and drug resistant MRSA..
And later in the article the FDA seems to contradict, in my opinion, what it stated earlier:
“The FDA noted that there was no evidence that triclosan could be harmful to people but noted that an animal study showed the chemical may alter hormone regulation and several other lab studies showed that bacteria may be able to evolve resistance to triclosan in a way that can help them also resist antibiotics.”
No evidence? Drug resistant MRSA can and has killed people! So what’s the deal? Do you think that there is an issue or is this being overblown?
