Your toothbrushes and showerheads are teeming with viruses: Study finds ‘absolutely wild numbers’
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Your toothbrush and showerhead are teeming with viruses. A new study found hundreds of viruses that live there, giving a peek into the hidden world of microbes in our bathrooms. The study was published in Frontiers in Microbiomes by researchers from Northwestern University.
Microbial populations on showerheads and toothbrushes
One would think that our toothbrush and showerhead, being in bathrooms and regularly exposed to water, would be virus-free. However, the research found surprisingly distinct microbial populations on them. The study analysed 92 showerhead and 34 toothbrush samples across the United States, using advanced DNA sequencing techniques to identify the bacteria and viruses present.
Northwestern’s Erica M. Hartmann, who led the study, said in a university release, “The number of viruses that we found is absolutely wild. We found many viruses that we know very little about and many others that we have never seen before. It’s amazing how much untapped biodiversity is all around us. And you don’t even have to go far to find it; it’s right under our noses.”
The researchers also found bacteriophages - viruses that infect bacteria - in both showerheads and toothbrushes. According to the study, they play a crucial role in shaping bacterial communities and may even influence our health in ways we don’t yet fully understand. These newly identified viruses could have implications for controlling harmful bacteria and may even lead to new therapeutic applications in the future.
Toothbrush harbour diverse range of microbe
Compared to a showerhead, a toothbrush has a diverse range of microbes. This happens because our toothbrush comes in contact with a variety of bacteria, including bacteria from our mouths, food particles, and environmental microbes.
“We saw basically no overlap in virus types between showerheads and toothbrushes,” Hartmann explained. “We also saw very little overlap between any two samples at all. Each showerhead and each toothbrush is like its own little island. It just underscores the incredible diversity of viruses out there.”
In the end, Hartmann said, “Microbes are everywhere, and the vast majority of them will not make us sick. The more you attack them with disinfectants, the more they are likely to develop resistance or become more difficult to treat. We should all just embrace them.”
