Disinfectant tolerance: extent and impact on performance

Differences between antibiotic and disinfectant resistance

In the media, and to a lesser extent in other literature, hardly any distinction is made between resistance to different classes of antimicrobials, leading to confusion about whether resistance to one agent is related to resistance to other agents. Many believe that resistance to antibiotics is the same as resistance to disinfectants and detergents and that a solution that addresses resistance to one antimicrobial agent also applies to the others. In contrast to antibiotics, resistance problems with disinfectants occur much less frequently, as the two are based on different mechanisms. While antibiotics act specifically on certain biological processes in the metabolism of bacteria, disinfectants act non-specifically on the entire biological structures of the cell. It is therefore not surprising that the bacteria can change these specific sites of attack (of antibiotics) through mutations. However, the bacterial cells are much less able to adapt and protect themselves against the attack of disinfectants.

What causes antibacterial tolerance and how does it develop?