Cosmetic products may cause fatal infections in critically ill patients

Healthcare Purchasing News, April, 2008

Healthy consumers can handle the low levels of bacteria occasionally found in cosmetics. But for severely ill patients these bacteria may trigger life-threatening infections, as patients in the intensive care unit at one Barcelona hospital discovered after using contaminated body moisturizer. The Burkholderia cepacia bacteria outbreak is detailed in the open access journal, Critical Care. Five patients suffered from infection including bacteremia, lower respiratory tract infection and urinary tract infection associated with the bacterial outbreak in August 2006. Skin care products sold in the European Union are not required to be sterile, but there are limits to the amount and type of bacteria that are permitted.

Researchers tested a number of environmental samples, and discovered that moisturizing body milk used in the patients' care was a B. cepacia reservoir. Tests on sealed containers of the moisturizer confirmed that the bacteria had not invaded the product after it had been opened, but that it was contaminated during manufacturing, transportation or storage.

"This outbreak of nosocomial infection caused by B. cepacia in five severely ill patients supports a strong recommendation against the use cosmetic products for which there is no guarantee of sterilization during the manufacturing process," says study author Francisco Alvarez-Lerma. B. cepacia is a group or "complex" of bacteria that can be found in soil and water. They have a high resistance to numerous antimicrobials and antiseptics and are characterised by the capacity to survive in a large variety of hospital microenvironments. These bugs pose little medical risk to healthy people. However, those with weakened immune systems or chronic lung diseases, particularly cystic fibrosis, may be more susceptible to B. cepacia infection. B cepacia is a known cause of hospital infections.

In an unrelated study, scientists in Japan discovered a new species of bacteria that can live in hairspray. According to the results published in the March issue of the International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology. "Contamination of cosmetic products is rare but some products may be unable to suppress the growth of certain bacteria," says Dr. Bakir from the Japan Collection of Microorganisms, Saitama, Japan.