MRSA Notes

Also presented at the ICAAC conference was research on the use of reusable examination gloves, treated with a combination of chlorhexadine (Peridex) and a brilliant green dye - the combination is known as Gardine and is an antiseptic rather than an antibiotic. This is preliminary research from the University of Texas (gig ‘em, Ags ) showing some definite promise for future improvements in the way that hospital and food borne bacterial infections are handled.

The researchers chose to use Peridex, she said, to avoid the possibility that use of treated gloves might lead to increases in antibiotic resistance. “Unlike antibiotics, antiseptics do not have as much resistance,” she added.

The researchers conducted long-term tests, in which the glove material was smeared with a solution containing pathogens and left for 24 hours, and short-term tests lasting up to an hour.

Interestingly, the treated reusable glove material had no colonies of either pathogen, she said. The improvement was statistically significant in all cases.

After the brief exposure, the researchers were unable to recover any pathogen from the treated glove material, she said, compared with median colony-forming unit densities of greater than 1,000 per square centimeter on the untreated material.

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