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Could a dab of gel to the nose beat superbug MRSA?
Last updated at 09:52am on 19.05.08
British scientists are working on a new drug which they hope will beat hospital superbugs
The compound XF-73 has been shown to wipe out the five most common varieties of the antibiotic-resistant infection.
The superbug did not develop any resistance to the treatment even after being exposed to it 55 times.
Bristol-based Destiny Pharma, which is now carrying out human trials on the drug, said that by 2011 it could be being used to stop the spread of MRSA on wards, saving hundreds of lives a year.
This week, official figures will reveal that rates of MRSA-related deaths have risen by more than a third since 2001. Over the same period the number of deaths linked to the superbug C. difficile quadrupled.
Dr Bill Love, chief executive of Destiny Pharma, said that within six years XF-73 could be being used routinely to cure patients already infected with MRSA, and it might eventually be used against the superbug C. difficile.
"If it goes through clinical trials successfully, it really is a completely fundamental breakthrough," he said.
"The potential is really quite amazing."
Crucially, the compound works in a different-way to antibiotics, many of which simply prevent MRSA from multiplying in the body. XF-73 works by destroying the superbug's cell membrane.
It could be applied via a gel to sites such as the nostril - a common source of MRSA.
The research was unveiled at the annual European Conference of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases in Barcelona.
Derek Butler, of the campaign group MRSA Action, said the discovery could have been made much earlier if the Government had put more money into research.
On Thursday the Office for National Statistics will reveal that MRSA was mentioned on almost 1,700 death certificates in 2006. In the same year more than 6,000 died after contracting C. diff in hospitals across England and Wales - more than four times the number who died from it in 2001.
However the rate of superbug infections has begun to fall in recent months.
A spokesman for the Department of Health said: "This is interesting research, and we maintain a close watch on these and other emerging findings in the field.
"Reducing healthcare-associated infections is a top priority for the NHS and we are already seeing significant reductions in healthcare-associated MRSA bloodstream infections, with rates down by 30 per cent compared with the same period last year."
