The rise of the superbug MRSA (Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) in hospitals may soon be a threat of the past. A new technology prototype is being tested in England that will kill drug resistant bacteria without drugs.

The device depends on the use of a plasma containing an air suspended mixture proven to be lethal for bacteria of many types. Plasmas are common in the cosmos, usually where high-energy processes produce them. But rather than using the high energy sources necessary to strip off a whole group of atoms, this device strips off electrons from just a few of the atoms. Those electrons fly off and collide with unchanged atoms creating a gaseous cocktail of charged particles that roam about freely rather than remain contained within atoms.

This is similar to the expensive method currently used to disinfect surgical instruments. But now there is an economical delivery system for this plasma that will enable more widespread use. The economy of the delivery system is more the breakthrough than the technology itself. This new technology's delivery system can be hand held and used for less serious issues such as eliminating bad breath or underarm odors.

As researcher Gregor Morfill of the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics explained, "The plasma produces a series of over 200 chemical reactions that involve the oxygen and nitrogen in air plus water vapor - there is a whole concoction of chemical species that can be lethal to bacteria".

This procedure can eliminate the need for long periods of washing and scrubbing with no guarantee that all the bugs are killed. There may soon be no need for concerns about patients or visitors who come and go, as well as health care workers who visit different facilities as part of their duties.

In the foreseeable future, this new affordable technology can be placed in hospital halls and doorways. Everyone who walks through would be disinfected from potentially lethal superbugs that are immune to antibiotics.

Sources for this article include:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technolo...


New plasma device may soon be used to eliminate superbugs in hospitals
December, 2009

by: Paul Louis