Superbugs 'thrive in sweat'

Infections picked up in hospitals cost the NHS £1bn each year

Many hospital superbugs may originate on patients' skin and may be helped by sweat, according to scientists.

Research carried out in Denmark suggests body sweat is the perfect thriving ground for superbugs.

Superbugs - bugs which are resistant to antibiotics - are on the increase. Infections acquired by patients while they are in hospital cost the NHS in England almost £1bn each year.

The Danish researchers believe some antibiotics seep out of a patient's body through sweat. They suggest the bacteria on a patient's skin becomes resistant to the antibiotic through unrelenting exposure.

They say anyone who comes into physical contact with such a patient would be at risk of picking up the drug-resistant bacteria.

It's an important observation

Alan Johnson, PHLS

They suggest doctors should limit the use of some antibiotics in an effort to fight the growth in superbugs.

Dr Niels Hoiby from the University of Copenhagen tested this theory on himself and colleagues using five commonly-used antibiotics.

He measured how much of the antibiotic leaked out onto the skin. He found traces of two of the drugs, which are used to treat chest and urinary tract infections, on his and his colleagues' bodies.

Dr Hoiby has tested a total of 25 antibiotics on himself. He has found that bacteria on the skin developed resistance in just three days after completing a week-long course of treatment.

He is now planing to test the theory further by taking samples from patients on specific antibiotics.

Solution

Dr Hoiby believes the only solution may be to use these drugs much more sparingly in future.

"When we know which antibiotics disturb the flora of the skin, we can choose antibiotics that don't."

Alan Johnson, an antibiotic resistance expert at the Public Health Laboratory Service (PHLS), welcomed the finding.

"It's an important observation, no doubt about that."

But he said doctors should not withdraw treatments from patients on the basis of the study. Many of the drugs, he said, are need to treat serious diseases.

The study is published in the latest issue of New Scientist magazine.