Originally published June 23 2005
Hospital detergents in Scotland promote spread of bug
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
A recent article on Scotsman.com said that hospitals in Scotland were using a type of detergent that failed to kill a sometimes-lethal bug called Clostridium difficile (CD), which has killed 12 people since late 2003, instead of using bleach, which was proven to kill the bug.
Detergents used to clean hospital wards are making a lethal bug worse, an expert said today.
He said detergents cause the bacteria to thrive, increasing the likelihood of health care-acquired infections and contributing to an annual treatment bill in excess of �100 million.
Professor Mark Wilcox, a consultant medical microbiologist at Leeds University, is analysing an apparently new strain of Clostridium difficile (CD) which has killed 12 elderly people since late 2003 at Stoke Mandeville Hospital in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire.
The CD bug, carried in the gut, is triggered in people by antibiotics and causes potentially lethal diarrhoea, he said.
Dr Wilcox also said today that certain hospital cleaning agents were in fact increasing, rather than wiping out, the bacteria's hardy spores.
Bleach-based agents were known to kill the bug but they are not used in the general cleaning of hospitals because they rot surfaces, he said.
Dr Wilcox said today: "Even bleach has a problem killing CD spores but it will kill them in the right concentration.
This is in line with Health Protection Agency guidelines, recommending detergents for general hospital cleaning and bleach-based products on wards where bugs like CD are evident.
A spokeswoman for the Department of Health said the exact products used by cleaners in different hospitals could vary due to cleaning firms being contracted in from outside.
Dr Wilcox said the average extra stay in hospital required by a patient who contracts CD is 21 days, costing roughly around �200 a day around �4,000 all up.
He said CD was generally carried by elderly people, many of whom have it when they go into hospital, only exhibiting symptoms chiefly diarrhoea -- when they are given antibiotics.
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