Hospitals are known to house not only patients in their institutions, but also some of the most stubborn, highly resistant bacteria that can be found anywhere. Thriving in places that should be sterile for recovering patients, antibiotic-resistant bacteria have been a constant thorn at the side of hospitals. But the numbers are up for these types of bacteria as there is a newly developed cleanser to wash them away.

The tough new cleanser-additive developed by Dr. Udi Qimron of the Department of Clinical Microbiology and Immunology at Tel Aviv University's Sackler Faculty of Medicine, is an efficient, cost-effective liquid solution that has a novel way of killing bacteria - by infecting it.

The problem with bacteria is that as it is continually and frequently exposed to antibiotics, it learns to change its components, making it immune to the antibiotics' ways.

Dr. Qimron found a way around this by basing the developed solution on specially designed bacteriophages which can alter the genetic make-up of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. The doctor explained that they have genetically engineered the bacteriophages so that once it infects the bacteria, its transfers a gene that makes it susceptible to certain antibiotics.

This gene, called rpsL, restores bacteria's sensitivity to antibiotics, solving the problem of bacteria being resistant to them.

Dr. Qimron boasts that the solution is easy to prepare, easy to apply, and is non-toxic, in addition, the solution can be added to common antibacterial cleansers used on hospital surfaces. He estimates that one liter of the growth medium, which is the liquid where bacteriophages are grown, will cost just a few dollars.

Currently, cleaning methods in hospitals are out-dated, giving institutions a problem with their surfaces which may contain bacteria, like MRSA and E. coli, because of the basic way of cleaning which is the use of a mop and a bucket.

In addition to the problem of cleaning methods, cleansers today also pose a risk to nurses who are in hospitals for extended periods of time. According to NaturalNews.com, toxic cleaning chemicals in hospitals have shown to increase the risk of cancer, asthma, miscarriages, and birth defects in nurses.