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Antibacterial Cleaning Products Don't Prevent Infectious Disease Symptoms

At least not in the typical household . . .

Many cleaning products sold for home use contain antibacterial ingredients, but the benefit of these products for healthy people isn't clear. Investigators randomized 238 primarily Hispanic households in New York City to use household cleaning and hand washing products with or without antibacterial agents.

During 48 weeks of follow-up, no significant differences were found between groups in overall rates of infectious disease symptoms or in rates of any of the following symptoms: vomiting, diarrhea, fever, sore throat, runny nose, cough, or skin/conjunctivitis symptoms. In addition, no difference was noted in number of symptoms. These results were true for most subsets of participants, including children 5 years or younger and children who attended day care. Among people with chronic disease, those assigned to use antibacterial products were more likely to have fever (12% vs. 4%), runny nose (21% vs. 9%), or cough (22% vs. 7%) than were those who used non-antibacterial products.

Comment: The main limitation of this study is that the symptoms that were assessed might not have been the symptoms that antibacterial cleaners prevent. The authors state that the findings in people with chronic disease were unexpected and therefore should be investigated further. Another potential risk of antibacterial cleaners is the development of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. In any case, antibacterial products do not appear to yield benefits for the average household.

— Richard Saitz, MD, MPH, FACP, FASAM

Published in Journal Watch General Medicine March 19, 2004

Citation(s):

Larson EL et al. Effect of antibacterial home cleaning and handwashing products on infectious disease symptoms: A randomized, double-blind trial. Ann Intern Med 2004 Mar 2; 140:321-9.

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