Unusual: researchers scrutinize bacteria in airport toilets

To assess the dissemination of antibiotic resistant bacteria, researchers at the University Hospital of Münster in Germany pushed their investigation into the sanitary facilities of airports. The samples analyzed leave no room for doubt: pushing the door of the toilets of these transit points traversed by thousands of travelers puts in direct contact with many bacteria. Handles are believed to be important vectors of transmission of multidrug-resistant bacteria according to the results published in the journal Clinical Microbiology and Infection. Warmly installed microorganisms are not the most sympathetic: golden staphylococci (bacteria responsible forfood poisoning or nosocomial infections in hospital) were contained in 5.5% of the samples.

What stir up world health experts already worried about the proliferation of bacteria resistant to antibiotics.

Bacteria from 400 airport handles analyzed

How did Frieder Schaumburg’s team come up with the idea to track bacteria down to airports? In a completely “ingenuous” way, the researchers took advantage of their professional air travel to collect bacteria in the airport toilets. So everyone had the task of pushing the sanitary doors before getting on a plane but also when they were on a stopover. In all, 400 handles were scrutinized at 136 airports in 59 countries.

The bottom line is, the next time you wash your hands after using the bathroom at an airport, consider stepping outside without touching the doorknob.

The growing resistance of bacteria to antibiotics is raising concerns among scientists. The decreased effectiveness of antibioticsthis could jeopardize conventional surgeries by causing infections in patients.

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