Battling the Super Bug

Methicillin resistant staphylococcus aureus, more commonly known as the MRSA Superbug, is on the increase and is now at an all time high in our hospitals.

Responsible for the vast majority of serious hospital infections, it is a true super bug that can only be controlled by one antibiotic - an antibiotic that MRSA is fast developing immunity to.

Making new antibiotics takes anywhere up to 15 years of research, development & clinical trials which - so scientists at the University of Warwick in the UK are looking at other ways to combat the Superbug.

They believe that Phage Therapy is the answer; and it may have come at a crucial time. The over-prescribing of antibiotics over the last 50 years may lead to them all becoming useless in little more than a decade.

Until recently much current work in phage therapy focuses on the application of lytic bacteriophages. However phages of this type that infect MRSA are difficult to isolate. The University of Warwick researchers have turned to Lysogenic Phages which tend to live in relative harmony within host bacteria - only killing the bacterium, reproducing and moving on when the bacterium itself is near the end of its life.

The Warwick researchers have developed techniques to identify these phages - particularly in MRSA - then specially mutate them into a new form capable of infecting and killing the appropriate bacterium. These useful new phages can be used in any cleaning operation in a hospital designed to combat MRSA or can even be incorporated in wound dressings.