Can Harmful Bacteria Flourish in Washing Machines?

Your newborn was just born and needs his/her clothes to be washed. Nothing bad can come of that right? Well in most cases the answer would be yes. Although In a very rare case in Germany there is a drug resistant bacteria. It lives in a particular washing machine and clings itself to knitted cloths.

 The bacteria, Klebsiella oxytoca, was simply in a  household washing machine. This bacteria can lead to pneumonia, bloodstream infections, and urinary tract infections. Researchers say it's a mystery why the bacteria stayed and thrived throughout multiple washes… “but they suspect residual water on the rubber seal or water in the final rinse cycle transmitted the bacteria to the clothes.”

 Is this now a concern for people who wash their clothes in a household machine? The answer to this question is no. This particular case in Germany was extremely rare and if your family is relatively healthy and doesn't have any kind of complex bacteria then you should be fine. 

It is truly a tragedy that little babies suffered from this bacteria so early in their lives but we can take precautions so this won't happen again. For example, we could not use household washing machines when it comes to new born babies in hospitals. Also, hospitals could test the washing machines every so to be completely positive nothing harmful is living in it. Hopefully we can all learn from this and make sure it never happens again!