Our shower drains are a breeding ground for drug-resistant bacteria

By Alice Klein

What’s lurking down there?

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Antibiotic-resistant bacteria have been found in more than three-quarters of the homes surveyed in a small study in Germany, and seem to particularly thrive in shower drains.

Drug-resistant bacteria are commonly detected in hospitals and crowded places like trains and shopping centres, but little is known about their prevalence in home environments.

To find out more, Dirk Bockmühl at the Rhine-Waal University of Applied Sciences in Germany and his colleagues took swabs from shower drains, dishwashers and washing machines in 54 private homes.

They detected antibiotic-resistant bacteria in 82 per cent of the …