The Staph Scare

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, often accused of moving too slowly to protect the public from harmful substances, cannot seem to win friends with decisive action either. The agency's latest dilemma involves hexachlorophene, the germ killer used in many soaps, deodorants and medicinal cleansers. Recently, the FDA moved to ban hexachlorophene from cosmetics and warned against bathing babies in compounds rich in the chemical (TIME, Dec. 20; Jan. 17).

When absorbed through the skin in sufficient quantity, experiments with animals had shown, hexachlorophene caused brain damage. No injury to humans was proved, however, and some doctors were skeptical about eliminating hexachlorophene use in hospitals. Last week that view gained support. :

By Hand. Cleansers like pHisoHex are credited with checking virulent staphylococcal infections among newborn infants. "Staph" is a ubiquitous bug transmitted in the air and by human hands. In high concentration, some strains can cause skin and eye inflammations and can even lead to pneumonia, heart problems and bone disease. The U.S. Center for Disease Control in Atlanta, which has been checking rumors of rising rates of staph infections, reported that 23 hospitals across the country have experienced such outbreaks since the beginning of the year.

The CDC declined to name the hospitals, but one of them volunteered news of the problem. Yale-New Haven Hospital announced that it had closed one of its six nurseries after pediatricians began finding colonies of staphylococcus bacteria--and mild infections--in infants. Critics of the FDA lost no time in blaming the agency's action for the outbreak. Dr. Louis Gluck, pediatrics professor at the University of California at San Diego and one of the first to report on hexachlorophene's benefits years ago, said: "There's no question about it. The ban on the use of hexachlorophene has resulted in the outbreak of staph."

The FDA and CDC were not so sure. Representatives from both agencies and the American Academy of Pediatrics met in Washington to review matters. They reaffirmed the FDA's December position but added a hedge: the cleanser may be temporarily used for bathing if there is a staph outbreak.

Some of those at the meeting suggested that the hospitals themselves were to blame for the staph resurgence. The hospitals, they said, had taken the FDA's warning too literally by completely removing hexachlorophene cleansers from the nursery. The FDA, said a spokesman, only advised doctors and nurses not to wash babies with hexachlorophene; it never told them not to use the cleanser on their own hands.

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