UK hospital uses manuka honey to fight superbug

Manuka honey has been used on special dressings at the Manchester Royal Infirmary.

A British hospital is importing manuka honey in bulk from New Zealand to use on mouth and throat cancer patients after surgery.

Doctors at Christie Hospital in Didsbury, Manchester, said they hoped it would reduce the patients' chances of contracting methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and help to lessen inflammation.

The MRSA "superbug" has developed antibiotic resistance, first to penicillin since 1947, and later to methicillin and related anti-staphylococcal drugs. It was first discovered in Britain in 1961 and is now widespread .

Biochemist Peter Molan, of Hamilton, has spent two decades researching the capability of some manuka honey strains to battle a range of bacteria, including E. coli, salmonella and helicobacter, as well as actively promote wound healing, even in antibiotic-resistant infections such as MRSA.

The anti-bacterial properties of ordinary honey - due to hydrogen peroxide produced by a glucose enzyme - have been known to traditional healers for centuries, but other "bio-active" compounds in some strains of manuka honey are found only in New Zealand and Australia.

Although the effects of the glucose enzyme are broken down by heat, light and other enzymes, the additional healing component of manuka honey does not break down in the same conditions and it can be used to treat some wounds and ulcers.

Manuka honey has been used on special honey-coated dressings at the Manchester Royal Infirmary since May.

Now 60 patients at the hospital are taking part in a study to see if the honey can prevent infections resistant to antibiotics.

- NZPA