MRSA

MRSA Treatment with Photodynamic Therapy

Imagine, if you will, all the issue with MRSA. Yes, it’s a bug that has devastating impacts for patients who become infected. Could they be treated with PDT? The answer is a very firm ‘Yes’. There are already in a few experimental treatments taking place in hospital units around the UK, Europe and North America. The treatment of open wound cases is one thing, but there is a much larger problem – or a larger opportunity for PDT. The MRSA bug is rife and many medical experts believe that many of us are carriers and the bug may be living on our skin, up our noses or in other parts of the body. There is no public screening for MRSA, and currently no easy test if we are carriers.

You can deep clean every hospital in the world, but if the next visitor or patient brings MRSA back in, your efforts are wasted.

There are four main opportunities for PDT and MRSA:

1: Patient treatment, using the drug in a cream or powder on wounds, and then activating the drug with light to kill the bugs.

2: Carrier treatment, using the drug in a wipe or mist spray, plus light, to destroy the MRSA bug in places such as the nose and ears. This could be developed as a simple nasal spray.

3: PDT ‘wipes’ or ‘tissues’ could be developed that are impregnated with the drug. Natural daylight would contain the wavelength of light needed to activate the drug and to destroy the bugs (and others). The cost would add a fraction of a penny to the cost of a pack of tissues.

4: MRSA-free hospital wards, hotel rooms, offices and the home could easily be possible with a PDT spray. Again, natural daylight would activate the drug to kill the MRSA bugs.

Commercial partners are going to be needed to deliver the visions in the final three cases.