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The Frequency of Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria in Homes Differing in Their Use of Surface Antibacterial Agents

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Abstract

Antibacterial agents are common in household cleaning and personal care products, but their long-range impacts on commensal and pathogenic household bacteria are largely unknown. In a one-time survey of 38 households from Boston, MA [19] and Cincinnati, OH [18], 13 kitchen and bathroom sites were sampled for total aerobic bacteria and screened for gram phenotype and susceptibility to six antibiotic drug families. The overall bacterial titers of both user (2 or more antibacterial cleaning or personal care products) and non-user (0 or 1 product) rooms were similar with sponges and sink drains consistently showing the highest overall titers and relatively high titers of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. The mean frequency of resistant bacteria ranged from ≤20 % to as high as 45 % and multi-drug resistance was common. However, no significant differences were noted between biocide users and non-users. The frequency of pathogen recovery was similar in both user and non-user groups.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank Bruce Keswick, Ward Bilhimer, and Kathy Kramp for their invaluable assistance with design, methods, logistics and statistics. This study was funded in part by a grant from The Procter & Gamble Company, Cincinnati, OH.

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Author notes

  1. Eduardo Robleto

    Present address: School of Life Sciences, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, NV, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Adaptation Genetics and Drug Resistance and The Department of Molecular Biology and Microbiology, Tufts University School of Medicine, 136 Harrison Ave., Boston, MA, 02111, USA

    Bonnie M. Marshall, Eduardo Robleto, Theresa Dumont & Stuart B. Levy

Authors
  1. Bonnie M. Marshall
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  2. Eduardo Robleto
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  3. Theresa Dumont
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  4. Stuart B. Levy
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Stuart B. Levy.

Additional information

A preliminary report of this study was presented at the American Society of Microbiology Annual Meeting in 2003. (B. M. Marshall, E. Robleto, T. Dumont, W. Bilheimer, K. Wiandt, B. Keswick and S. B. Levy, Abstr. 103rd Annual Meeting of the American Society for Microbiology, A147, 2003).

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Marshall, B.M., Robleto, E., Dumont, T. et al. The Frequency of Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria in Homes Differing in Their Use of Surface Antibacterial Agents. Curr Microbiol 65, 407–415 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00284-012-0172-x

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