Hospital superbugs 'may be history by 2015'

Link: Scotsman.com

HOSPITAL superbugs could be all but wiped out in ten years by viruses that are harmless to humans, say Scottish scientists. Dr Mike Mattey and a team of researchers at Strathclyde University have come up with a new method of tackling bugs such as the killer MRSA that does not involve using antibiotics. They have patented a technique to allow bacteriophages - viruses which are the natural enemy of bacteria - to be used in normal cleaning products. The viruses can lie dormant for weeks, only waking up to devour the MRSA when it arrives. A drop of ordinary sea water contains millions of tiny bacteriophages and, despite the fact they are known to be harmless to humans, the Strathclyde team still have to go through a regulatory process that is expected to take up to three years. Dr Mattey, who was yesterday at a meeting of the Federation of Infection Societies in Cardiff to promote the system, told The Scotsman: "With this strategy, we can resolve all these antibiotic-resistant bacteria problems. We cannot cure it completely, but we can control it."

Comments

[Robert Burgess]

Use of Phages in post democracy soviet countries was shown on TV programme about 5 years ago. They had a working technology, but lacked funds to implement it outside of the local areas. US drugs companies tried to buy the technology (no doubt in order to patent it and then suppress its use). With the latests news (Jan 2007) on the spread of MRSA and the governement unable to meet its target and the rise in cases of CD (I am no biologist so do not know and cannot spell its full name)why has this proven method taken so long to reach the UK??? The method can be applied locally for almost any known (or unknown) bacterial infection, does not need antibiotics (so no build up of resistance),is cheap (a few petri dishes and some nutrient), easily applied using a hand pumped aerosol and it works... Please get on with it before I reach an age where a hospital stay becomes more than a 50% probability