Sunday, September 19, 2010

New Drug that Kills deadly superbugs in less than 5 minutes

British scientists developed a drug that could kill deadly superbugs. C-Diff ( which causes diarrhea and intestinal problems and MRSA (Clostridium difficile)Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) causes infections in humans which difficult to treat. People can acquire both bacterial infections in the hospital, and both bacteria are life threating. The scientists claim that the drug with the codename XF-73 “can eradicate the superbugs within five minutes, which means that deadly bacteria have little chance of developing any resistance to it.” XF-73 is different from regular antibiotics because it breaks down the cell walls of the bacteria which causes rapid loss of the bacteria’s vital contents. During clinical test the XF-73 gel was placed in patients noses and it eradicated the bugs with no side effects, and MRSA did not any resistance after 55 exposures. The British scientists believe that this new drug could help prevent the spread of infections in hospitals.

this is from the Times of India UK London

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/uk/New-drug-that-kills-deadly-superbugs-in-less-than-5-minutes/articleshow/6588419.cms

I think this is a great development for the health field because it solve a lot of problems for health care workers and the general population. One of the biggest problems in disease processes in my opinion is the fact that there are so many bacterium developing resistance to existing antibiotics. people take antibiotics to often and use sanitizers to clean good and bad bacteria, so those medications are no longer effective in treating infections from those bacterium. this new XF-73 could be the answer to all those problems because it kills the bacteria in less than 5 minutes, so the bacteria does not have time to develop resistance. MRSA affects college/university dormitories and gyms so this is a great drug for those establishments to learn more about.
My concerns with this new drugs are: How many clinical trials have they run and for how many years? Although they did not find side effects now, what is the probability of developing side effects in the future? How much will this cost? and can the general public afford it?

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