Hospitals 'beating the superbugs'

Bacteria may build up resistance to all antibiotics

Hospitals appear to be winning the war against so called superbugs, according to a team of scientists in Edinburgh.

The deadly infections are picked up by patients in hospitals and are resistant to nearly all antibiotics.

But the Edinburgh scientists have discovered that the levels of resistance have stopped rising for the first time - meaning doctors may now be able to treat them.

About 100,000 people every year pick up a hospital infection in the UK - and 5,000 of those infected will die.

The strength of superbugs like MRSA (methicillin resistant staphylococcus aureus) is their incredible resistance to antibiotics - a weapon the medical world has relied on for generations.

Antibiotics are used to prevent infection after surgery

Now Dr Bob Masterton, a consultant microbiologist at the Western General Hospital in Edinburgh, and his team believe they are beginning to see a retreat.

They are taking part in a worldwide study and have just completed the third year of a five-year trial.

They say they have discovered that the levels of resistance which have been seen over the past 10 years have stopped rising for the first time.

And one antibiotic, meropenem, is proving particularly powerful.

Last defence

These results may now mean that in future doctors will be able to treat superbugs once and for all.

Earlier this month researchers warned that hospitals may be neutralising their last defence against superbugs by routinely using a powerful antibiotic.

Vancomycin can prevent wound infection after surgery.

However, instead of using it sparingly, some hospitals are using the drug as routine.

Experts in England said they feared that this increased the risk that drug resistant superbugs would be created for which medicine has no answer.