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Superbugs go global

Created:
6 May 2008
Written by:
Richard Hemming

Anyone who thought that the plague of hospital-acquired infections, such as MRSA and Clostridium difficile, is solely a domestic phenomenon is sorely mistaken.

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C.difficile was cited as the cause of death for 3,807 people in England and Wales in 2005, compared with 1,214 people in 2001. MRSA was given as the cause of death for 1,629 people in 2005, up from 734 in 2001.

But these figures pale in comparison with those from the US. Hospital-acquired infections (HAI) are estimated to be one of the top 10 causes of death in the US, claiming 90,000 lives every year. And the costs are mounting. A report in the US by the Government Accountability Office estimates that in a study of 1.69m patients who were discharged from 77 hospitals the additional expense for treating a patient with HAI averaged $8,832, according to Clinica World Technology News.

The statistics are appalling, but the authorities in the US are doing something about it, which isn’t being done elsewhere. They are making the hospitals foot the bill for patient care that is required as a result of hospital errors or due to hospital-acquired conditions, including three HAIs. Normally, hospitals are reimbursed for the treatments of HAIs.

"This will hopefully provide a greater drive towards the prevention of hospital-acquired infections, because it means the onus will be on the hospitals to prevent them in the first place," says Oriel Securities analyst Mike Mitchell.

Mr Mitchell says Advanced Medical Solutions is well-positioned to reduce the incidence of surgically related HAI through the use of its InteguSeal product, which is distributed by Kimberly-Clark in the US. Before surgery a liquid is painted onto the patient's skin, which 'locks down' the microbes on the skin's surface so that they can't infect.

Other UK-listed companies that have operations that can help reduce the incidence of superbugs, include Bioquell, Tristel and Puricore.

At the time of Bioquell's full-year result in March, chief executive Nick Adams said he expected demand to increase substantially in the US and UK markets for its superbug eradication system. Six months earlier he said Bioquell had one permanent decontamination team on-site in a hospital in the US. In March, it had five - three in the US and two in the UK.

More than 60 per cent of Puricore's revenues come from its UK endoscopy business, which decontaminates equipment used in hospitals. One of Tristel's business lines is using chlorine dioxide to wash salads for supermarkets, but the same solution can be used to attack hospital infections.

The superbugs are a big problem, but finding a solution could be big business for the handful of UK players.

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