Byotrol wins the fight against superbugs

SUPERBUGS that kill thousands of patients in hospitals across the UK every year could soon be eradicated for good with technology from a Manchester company.

Byotrol’s anti-microbial technology was developed a number of years ago and is clinically proven to kill bugs such as MRSA, VRE and C.difficile.

Now after many years of “frustration”, Byotrol could soon become available to hospitals all over the country. 

AIM-listed Byotrol today announced that a US hospital in Bloomington, Indiana, which has been using Byotrol since it opened in 2006, has never had a case of the superbugs which have left many thousands of people disabled and disfigured.

In the UK, Byotrol is currently undergoing a large scale trial at an unnamed teaching hospital in the North West, after an earlier pilot at Glasgow Royal Infirmary in 2006 which saw MRSA reduced by 50 per cent after treating only five per cent of high contact surfaces in a ward. The company said interim results for the North West trial have been extremley encouraging.

Byotrol continues to kill micro-organisms for days after it has been applied. In comparison, a disinfectant such as bleach is only effective for a maximum of a couple of minutes, after that micro-organisms start to re-colonise on a surface.

The technology kills highly-resistant organisms such MRSA and VRE. However it is extremely gentle on human skin compared to other disinfectants used in hospitals and requires no special precautions or equipment to use it.

Yet despite its obvious benefits, Byotrol deputy chairman Stephen Falder, says it has taken years of banging on the door of the NHS to get trials done, however he is confident that the disinfectant will soon become widely available in UK hospitals.

He says: “It has been terribly frustrating but there is enormous bureaucracy in the NHS and well as a certain amount of inertia. In addition there have been thousands of people claiming they have the answer which in some cases so-called miracles have been as ludicrous as engine oil mixtures!

“However we can now see light at the end of the tunnel, and anticipate that next year we will be forming a lifelong partnership with the NHS.

“While we won’t see zero infections immediately, we expect the number of cases to reduce steadily as we start to make a big difference to UK hospitals.”