<story><title>Hospital superbugs are evolving to survive hand sanitizers (2018)</title><url>https://arstechnica.com/science/2018/08/hospital-superbugs-are-evolving-to-survive-hand-sanitizers/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>umvi</author><text>What&amp;#x27;s to stop a mutation from making bacteria copper-immune?</text></item><item><author>godzillabrennus</author><text>We’ve known how to combat this for a while: &lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;theconversation.com&amp;#x2F;copper-is-great-at-killing-superbugs-so-why-dont-hospitals-use-it-73103&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;theconversation.com&amp;#x2F;copper-is-great-at-killing-superb...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;Copper on the surface of hospital furniture should help a lot.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>IAmEveryone</author><text>The basic principle is that hand sanitizers are applied externally. They can be far more agressive than, say, antibiotics because they do not enter the body (or only in minimal quantities). The skin is a specialized, multi-layered protective structure that single-celled organisms just cannot replicate within their constraints (ability to absorb food, energy investment, etc). It&amp;#x27;s not &lt;i&gt;quite&lt;/i&gt; good enough to allow the sort of methods completely immune against evolved resistance (fire, sufficient radiation, etc.). But it&amp;#x27;s far enough ahead to make it manageable.&lt;p&gt;So I wouldn&amp;#x27;t worry too much. The worst outcome is likely to be hand-washing becoming a somewhat larger nuisance, a higher risk of skin irritation or some combination therefore. The whole procedure is probably ripe for some purely mechanical innovation such as high(ish) pressure water or air, considering that part hasn&amp;#x27;t much changed in the last 200 years (although training and frequency have increased)</text></comment>
<story><title>Hospital superbugs are evolving to survive hand sanitizers (2018)</title><url>https://arstechnica.com/science/2018/08/hospital-superbugs-are-evolving-to-survive-hand-sanitizers/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>umvi</author><text>What&amp;#x27;s to stop a mutation from making bacteria copper-immune?</text></item><item><author>godzillabrennus</author><text>We’ve known how to combat this for a while: &lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;theconversation.com&amp;#x2F;copper-is-great-at-killing-superbugs-so-why-dont-hospitals-use-it-73103&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;theconversation.com&amp;#x2F;copper-is-great-at-killing-superb...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;Copper on the surface of hospital furniture should help a lot.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>pizza234</author><text>Answer in the article:&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; [...] copper and its alloys exhibit these impressive properties  and the processes involved. The process involves the release of copper ions (electrically charged particles) when microbes, transferred by touching, sneezing or vomiting, land on the copper surface. The ions prevent cell respiration, punch holes in the bacterial cell membrane or disrupt the viral coat, and destroy the DNA and RNA inside.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; This latter property is important as it means that no mutation can occur – preventing the microbe from developing resistance to copper.</text></comment>