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Strategies to Control Bacteria at the Environmental Level

المؤلف:  Stefan Riedel, Jeffery A. Hobden, Steve Miller, Stephen A. Morse, Timothy A. Mietzner, Barbara Detrick, Thomas G. Mitchell, Judy A. Sakanari, Peter Hotez, Rojelio Mejia

المصدر:  Jawetz, Melnick, & Adelberg’s Medical Microbiology

الجزء والصفحة:  28e , p59-61

2026-04-22

390

 In medical microbiology one often considers the control of bacteria infecting humans with antibiotics as the gold standard in treating infections. While true, the real first line is to prevent exposure to infectious agents. For example, nearly 240,000 deaths annually occur worldwide as a result of neonatal tetanus. Yet this disease is very rare in developed countries. A major contributing factor is the inability to “sterilize” instruments (in addition to routine immunization with the tetanus vaccine) in many developing countries. If proper practices were used in underdeveloped regions, the prevalence of this disease could be substantially reduced. Thus, one must understand methods of sterilization, disinfection, and pasteurization, among others. The techniques used to mitigate microbial infection should be understood at the mechanism of action level in order to apply them in the appropriate situation. Table 1 represents a nonexhaustive list of routinely used biocides. It is important to understand the terms bacteriostatic and bactericidal as defined in Table 1. The general mechanisms by which these biocides accomplish their antimicrobial activity are summarized in the following section.

Table1. Some Common Biocides Used for Antisepsis, Disinfection, Preservation, and Other Purposes

Table1. Some Common Biocides Used for Antisepsis, Disinfection, Preservation, and Other Purposes (Continued)