Maggots used to counter MRSA superbug - Telegraph
Extract:
"Maggots have been successfully used to treat patients with the superbug MRSA, according to scientists.
In a preliminary trial, 12 of 13 patients with wounds infected with the potentially deadly bug were cured using larvae of the greenbottle fly Lucilia Sericata.
Because maggots eat dead and decaying flesh while leaving healthy tissue intact, "larval therapy" has been used by doctors since at least as early as the Napoleonic Wars, and the technique is still taught to US Army Special Forces medics.
The patients in the study, aged between 18 and 80, were cleared of the infection in an average of three weeks, compared to the 28 weeks needed for conventional treatment with anti-MRSA lotions.
Researchers used maggots to treat diabetic patients who had contracted MRSA in foot ulcers, but they said the findings were likely to apply to all patients who contracted the superbug in wounds.
Professor Andrew Boulton, of the School of Medicine at the University of Manchester, said: "Maggots are the world's smallest surgeons. In fact they are better than surgeons. They are much cheaper and work 24 hours a day.
"They remove the dead tissue and bacteria, leaving the healthy tissue to heal.
"Still, we were very surprised to see such a good result for MRSA."
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Thursday, May 03, 2007
Maggots have been used to treat wounds infected with MRSA.
Posted by Willow at 1:44 pm
Labels: Lucilia Sericata, maggots, MRSA, Professor Andrew Boulton
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