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A new paper in Evolution, Medicine, and Public Health, published by Oxford University Press, indicates that antibiotic resistance may result from poor hygiene practices in hospitals or other medical facilities. Researchers addressed whether hygiene weakens the effect of antibiotic pressure on resistance evolution. The authors first developed a mathematical model of resistance to predict how good or poor hygiene might affect how rapidly resistant bacteria increase in abundance due to antibiotic treatment. Kristofer Wollein Waldetoft, a postdoctoral researcher with the Center for Microbial Dynamics and Infection (CMDI) in the School of Biological Sciences, and Sam Brown, professor in the School and former CMDI director, collaborated on the research.

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How clean hospitals can reduce antibiotic resistance and save lives