A superbug needs a super test
27 Jun 2005 by Evoluted New Media
As MRSA continues to claim victims and fears rise over dirty hospitals, Bio-Rad Laboratories have called for the war on the superbug to be stepped up with the use of new screening technologies.
As MRSA continues to claim victims and fears rise over dirty hospitals, Bio-Rad Laboratories have called for the war on the superbug to be stepped up with the use of new screening technologies.
The call comes as the Healthcare commission announce plans to carry out an audit of hospital cleanliness over the summer of 2005. Bio-Rad say that only a two pronged approach based on screening and cleaning will help beat MRSA.
Andrew Potter, northern European product manager for microbiology of Bio-Rad Laboratories explained: “A balance has to be struck between cleaning our hospitals and identifying cases of MRSA. If you don’t identify cases early, how will you know how effective the cleaning strategy has been?”
“Clearly high standards of cleanliness is crucial to stop the spread of MRSA, however this should coincide with prevention of infection in the first place, and comprehensive screening processes need to be introduced to minimise risks to patients.” Added Phil Howard, diagnostics division manager at Bio-Rad.
Several easy to use, cost effective screening tests are now available to hospitals, but Bio-Rad say that their new MRSASelect test will be the quickest of its kind to provide a definitive result. “After a nasal swab is taken, a simple interpretation can be made after only 24hrs.” Said Potter.
Costing less than £1 per patient, the test is designed to slow the spread of antibiotic resistance and to allow the use of costly antibiotics to be reserved for patents that really need them. MRSA currently costs the NHS £1 billion a year, and between April 2003 and March 2004 the incidence of infection rose from 7384 cases to 7647 cases.
Potter said: “A study of the MRSASelect test has just been completed at Sheffield Health Protection Agency. It went well and the results will be published soon. They have decided to buy the test, which I think is a good sign.”
