Drug resistant superbugs are expected to overwhelm the healthcare system, reverse a century’s worth of medical progress and claim more lives than cancer by 2050 unless efforts are accelerated to stop antibiotic resistant bacteria in their tracks.
While most studies to address the problem are focusing on the development of new drugs, a series of elegant studies in France has taken an unusual angle—analyzing the types of surfaces that can harbor drug resistant bacteria in healthcare settings. Surfaces can serve as fomites, which refers to objects or materials likely to harbor infectious organisms, allowing them to promote the spread of pathogens when touched or used. Scientists have long known that environmental surfaces are a potential reservoir for healthcare-associated infections. So the hunt has been underway in France to find a material with potent antimicrobial activity.
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