Cold war weaponry to tackle superbugs*

By Gary Cleland
Last Updated: 1:06am GMT 29/10/2007

Technology developed to protect Britain from biological weapons is being
redeployed into hospitals to help destroy superbugs.

Among the first hospital trusts to install the air disinfection units
will be Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust, where at least 90
people died from the bug Clostridium difficile.

The machines, first developed at the British defence establishment
Porton Down in the 1960s, have been approved by an NHS ethics committee
after trials at hospitals in Sunderland, Manchester and Carlisle.

Tests showed the machines are capable of killing 98.5 per cent of germs
in the air, including drug-resistant strains of C.diff, MRSA and E.coli.

Amid growing concerns over the state of cleanliness in British hospital
wards, Gordon Brown announced a programme to “deep clean” all wards last
month.

Last week however, as wards across the country were forced to close
following an outbreak of the norovirus vomiting bug, Conservatives
dismissed the plans as a “gimmick” because there is no system in place
to monitor it.

Experts believe the new air cleaning units are needed, however, even if
deep cleaning is introduced.

Clive Beggs, Professor of medical technology at Bradford University, has
been leading NHS research on controlling hospital acquired infections.

He said: "We’re washing hands more than ever before but infections are
going up. Something else must be going on.

"The aerial route is the most significant source of infection in the
clinical environments."

Professor Derek Ellwood, who was part of the original team that
developed the machines and is now an advisor to the company producing
them for the NHS, said: "We now know there is a direct relation between
what’s going on in the atmosphere and actually killing organisms.

"This atmospheric disinfection machine is going to kill bacteria and
viruses."

Meanwhile scientists have discovered a type of clay found in France
could be another weapon against superbugs.

Agricur, made from ancient volcanic ash found near the Massif Central,
has been found in tests to kill up to 99 per cent of superbug colonies
within 24 hours.