Can MRSA infection be treated?
There is no known vaccine. Certain strains can be treated with expensive antibiotics – but that carries the risk of developing a mutant strain which is resistant to the new treatment. There are many cases where no antibiotic works, and the only cure is the patient’s own body defence system. If that cannot cope with the germ, the patient dies. A new drug to battle MRSA, Aurograb, is currently under trial in the UK. Some scientists believe that bacteriophages – viruses that infect and kill bacteria – are the way forward, but this method has yet to gain popular support. US scientists have detected a version of the virus called VRSA or vancomycin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, which is resistant to Vancomycin, the drug used to treat MRSA when others have failed. How are superbugs spread? The most common cause of infection is bad hygiene. The National Patient Safety Agency published a report that found only 40 per cent of necessary hand-hygiene procedures were being carried out in NHS hos
