Granny was right - nothing is better than good old fashioned soap and water!

When it comes to germs scientists have found that granny was right and nothing is better than good old fashioned soap and water.

The scientists warn that regardless of marketing claims anti-bacterial hand wash is no more effective than soap at cleaning hands and what is more they may actually encourage some superbugs.

The researchers from Michigan University conducted a comprehensive analysis of 27 studies conducted between 1980 and 2006 on anti-bacterial washes and plain soaps and found anti-bacterial soap was no more effective at removing bacteria during hand washing than the plain ordinary soap.

It was also found to be no more effective in preventing infectious illness and did not help eradicate such bugs as E.coli.

Of more concern was the discovery that the way the main active ingredient in many antibacterial soaps - triclosan - reacts in the cells, which may cause some bacteria to become resistant to commonly used antibiotics such as Amoxicillin.

Resistance to common antibiotics is a characteristic of superbugs, such as MRSA, which many hospitals are currently struggling to cope with even though triclosan is used in higher concentrations in hospital soaps than in supermarket soaps.

Study leader Allison Aiello, a public health professor, says the scientific community needs to be aware of what is in such products as soaps containing triclosan used in the community setting are no more effective than plain soap at preventing infectious illness symptoms.

The analysis concluded that government regulators should evaluate antibacterial product claims and advertising, and further studies should be carried out.

Other antiseptic products on the market contain different active ingredients, such as the alcohol in hand sanitizers or the bleach in some antibacterial household cleaners.

Aiello's team did not study those products and those ingredients are not at issue.

The study, 'Consumer Antibacterial Soaps: Effective or Just Risky?' appears in the August edition of Clinical Infectious Diseases.