Question: wat drugs do you deal with stopping?

Donna Johnson answered on 10 Jun 2017:

I look at triclosan. Its an antimicrobial (meaning that it has wider action against microorganisms than antibiotics). It is in a lot of antibacterial products, like cleaning things, toothpaste and soap. It works by stopping the bacteria making fatty acids which they need for various things. The reason i look at it is because it has been associated with antibiotic cross resistance – as the bacteria become resistant to triclosan, they can also become resistant to some antibiotics. Potentially this means that bacteria in an environment like a hospital can be exposed to triclosan through cleaning procedures and may become resistant and then also resistant to antibiotics. This means that there may be antibiotic resistant bacteria where they can infect sick people. I want to know how bacteria become cross resistant at the same time. Ideally we would be able to use this information to identify a target for the development of new drugs.

Some more info here – https://www.fda.gov/ForConsumers/ConsumerUpdates/ucm205999.htm