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Honey can be used to prevent infection
London:
Honey can fight the superbugs. Doctors are using
honey from a particular colony of bees in Australia
to clean wounds infected after heart surgery. Aborigines
used to dress wounds with it. After watching them
at work, doctors have combined sterile honey from
Australian bees with seaweed to clean wounds infected
after heart surgery. Medihoney is already being used
on patients at the James Cook University Hospital
in Middlesbrough. It is combined with a gum extracted
from the seaweed, which helps draw out and absorb
harmful bacteria. The ingredients are then placed
on dressings which are applied to the wound. If successful,
the treatment could eventually be used in hospitals
to help fight bugs such as MRSA that claim around
5,000 lives and cost the Health Service #1 billion
a year. Previously, honey has been combined with anti-bacterial
compounds and used on patients with catheter infections
in a kidney unit at a hospital in Brisbane. Doctors
found that as well as fighting bacteria the mixture
was not met with the resistance commonly seen when
conventional anti- bacterial medicines are used. All
honey contains hydrogen peroxide from an enzyme that
bees add to nectar. The chemical is known to kill
bacteria.
- February 27, 2007
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