Method could beat superbugs

8:34am Friday 7th March 2008

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A REVOLUTIONARY cleaning method tested at Welwyn Garden City's QEII Hospital could be of huge benefit in fighting killer bugs.

A trial, in which cloths, patient gowns and bed linen are zapped with electricity in cold water, showed it was highly effective at killing the clostridium difficile (C-diff) bug.

But although it is already in use in many private care homes and at Bolton Wanderers Football Club, NHS rules which insist linen has to be washed at 70 C prevent its introduction in hospitals.

The system, known as OTEX, produces the gas ozone which kills C-diff, MRSA and other hospital-aquired infections.

Critics say standard cleaning techniques are ineffective at killing deadly bugs in bed linen and gowns.

The Department of Health claims the available evidence does not suggest linen is a major source of C-diff infection, and that failure to isolate patients and poor cleaning of wards are more important factors.