A commercial for Neosporin nags, "Every cut, every time."
Nothing could be more wrong. Another commercial for Lysol shows creepy-looking cartoon "bacteria" all over every surface in the house. It looks horrible! I'm sure it does a wonderful job of getting people out to the store to buy something to kill all those germs! But should you do that? NO!
One of the reasons these resistant staph bacteria are being found more places is that chemical companies are push "antibacterial" soaps and cleaners. What happens is twofold:
1. You know how they say stuff like Lysol kills 99% of bacteria and viruses? Well, it probably doesn't kill that much, studies have show that it's less than that, but let's say they are right. That means the the 1% who aren't killed are the STRONGEST ones left. Those strong bacteria that are left multiply like crazy and now you have a new population of bacteria that are stronger than ever.
Then you clean with Lysol or whatever again, and again kill a whole bunch of them, but the STRONGEST (most resistant) SURVIVE. And repopulate the area again. You are never going to rid the world of bacteria. The world is always going to have bacteria. The more you clean with that stuff, the stronger it makes the bacteria. This has also happened with bugs and pesticides, by the way.
2. The chemical that is used to make the detergents and cleaners "antibacterial" is called triclosan and it actually CREATES antibiotic-resistant bacteria!
The best thing to do is use regular soap and water, and to keep your immune system strong!
Be sure to wash cuts right away. If a cut starts to be infected, run it under hot water as hot as you can stand without being burned, for as long as you can stand, and do that a couple times the first day. You'd be amazed how quickly your body will mobilize to destroy the infection! You can use hot packs as well. Microwaving a clean, damp washcloth is an easy way to make a hot pack. Of course be careful not to burn yourself.
You don't need antibiotics for every little cut. Use common sense and don't give in to the sales efforts of the chemical companies. If enough people keep buying that stuff, we will all regret it.
To read more:
http://sciam.com/print_version
