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Youki spray halts the spread of superbug MRSA bacterium

In wound care treatment bandages and dressings may become archaic tools of the past. The future is in a spray called Youki that accelerates the healing process.

20 Dec 2004

No complicated formulas: more cleaners = cleaner hospitals

UNISON, the UK’s largest health union, has welcomed new figures showing improvements to standards of hospital cleanliness, but said that for most patients - “seeing is believing”.

8 Dec 2004

New research aims to reduce deaths and ease burden on hospitals

New research by scientists at Australia's Macquarie University will investigate antibiotic resistance genes in humans in an effort to combat worldwide death rates due to infectious diseases and reduce the growing burden on our health system by decreasing patients' length of stay.

6 Dec 2004

Infection rates from MRSA superbug will be halved by 2008, according to Health Secretary John Reid

Blood borne infection rates of the hospital superbug MRSA will be halved by 2008, Health Secretary John Reid said in a speech last week.

8 Nov 2004

Discovery of compound that renders the MRSA superbug vulnerable to antibiotics

MRSA- methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus- is defined by its ability to resist the antibiotic methicillin. Like penicillin, methicillin works by blocking bacterial enzymes called PBPs, which normally strengthen cell walls by forming cross links.

13 Oct 2004

Drug-resistant bacteria increasingly causing infections in healthy people

An emerging form of so-called "flesh-eating bacteria" is caused by a strain that is resistant to standard first-line antibiotics. The same type of bacteria, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is causing record numbers of less-serious skin infections in children and also is emerging as a cause of pneumonia, which can be deadly

30 Sep 2004

Phico Therapeutics secures funding to tackle superbug

Phico Therapeutics Ltd, a Cambridge-based company that has developed a unique anti-bacterial technology to treat the hospital superbug, MRSA, has raised £550,000 with the help of Oxfordshire Investment Opportunity Network, Europe’s leading technology business angel network.

6 Sep 2004

Yeast and tea tree oil kill MRSA superbug

Manchester Metropolitan University is working with a cutting edge technology firm to find a treatment for the hospital superbug MRSA which kills 5,000 patients each year.

23 Jul 2004

Reports of MRSA have increased by 3.6% in England over the last year

The results from the third year of the mandatory surveillance scheme for Staphylococcus aureus show the number of blood-stream infections caused by both sensitive strains, and also strains resistant to methicillin (MRSA) broken down by regions and also by each acute NHS Trust.

15 Jul 2004

New drive to tackle superbugs like MRSA

Hospitals will have to display infection rates as part of a new drive to tackle superbugs like MRSA.

12 Jul 2004

MRSA "superbug" genome decoded

On 18 June 2004, the BBC reported fears that deaths from the 'superbug' MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) might double in the next five years.

25 Jun 2004

MRSA superbugs emerged independently in at least eight countries including the UK

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) bacteria that are increasingly resistant to vancomycin, the antibiotic of last resort in the war against superbugs, have emerged independently in at least eight countries including the UK

24 Jun 2004

Hospital waiting lists could disappear completely under radical new Conservative plans to reform the NHS

Hospital waiting lists could disappear completely under radical new Conservative plans to reform the NHS and give patients the Right to Choose where to be treated.

24 Jun 2004

Research may explain why methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus infections are so difficult to control in hospitals

Currently, attempts to prevent spread of these infections include isolating infected patients and increasing staff hygiene measures such as handwashing. However, these attempts have met with limited success.

23 Jun 2004

Emergence of MRSA bacteria that are increasingly resistant to vancomycin

Researchers had previously thought that such bacteria were emerging from only one sort of the MRSA superbug, but the new study has shown that they have evolved in all major types.

17 Jun 2004

Oxford researchers find possible new type of antibiotic

Dr Ben Davis in the Department of Chemistry at Oxford University, England and his collaborators have discovered a possible new route to antibiotics.

26 Apr 2004

British company to launch "super bug tester" into UK hospitals

MRSA is the first test to be developed from Acolyte’s BacLite® testing platform. BacLite reduces the time for identifying both the type of bacteria and, more importantly, the antibiotic sensitivity of the bacteria from the current 3-4 day standard to just 2-5 hours. This time advantage will mean clinicians will be able to treat, much more effectively, serious bacterial infections and prevent potentially fatal complications, such as sepsis and septic shock, from developing.

24 Mar 2004