Biocide-tolerance and antibiotic-resistance in community environments and risk of direct transfers to humans: Unintended consequences of community-wide surface disinfecting during COVID-19?

ABSTRACT: During the current pandemic, chemical disinfectants are ubiquitously and routinely used in community environments, especially on common touch surfaces in public settings, as a means of controlling the virus spread. An underappreciated risk in current regulatory guidelines and scholarly discussions, however, is that the persisting input of chemical disinfectants can exacerbate the growth of biocide-tolerant and antibiotic-resistant bacteria on those surfaces and allow their direct transfers to humans. For COVID-19, the most commonly used disinfecting agents are quaternary ammonium compounds, hydrogen peroxide, sodium hypochlorite, and ethanol, which account for two-thirds of the active ingredients in current EPA-approved disinfectant products for the novel coronavirus. Tolerance to each of

SUBMITTER: Chen B 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8019131 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature