Revolutionary Hygiene Technology Available to NHS in Super Bug Battle
30th Oct 2008 A revolutionary hygienetechnology discovered seven years ago and developed to combat the spread ofhospital acquired infection is finally set to be made available to the NationalHealth Service.
Byotrol, a Britishcompany which has spent five years and £millions proving its technology (alsocalled Byotrol) through trials and studies in the UK, Europe and North America,will see the technology made available to NHS organisations from 29 October through the NHS Supply Chain Catalogue.
A total of six products,covering wipes and patient cleaning systems are being made available to the NHSthrough Byotrol's healthcare distribution partner Synergy Health with Byotroltechnology being incorporated into Synergy's leading hygiene brand the Azorange of products.
The announcement thatthe technology is finally being made available to the NHS represents asignificant milestone in the battle against hospital acquired infection becauseByotrol offers a number of unique benefits to infection control and preventionteams that no other technology can deliver. And according to one of the UK's foremostexperts in hospital acquired infection, the technology will help the NHS buildon its recent successful reduction in MRSA rates.
Byotrol is an antimicrobial technology which is unlike anything else on the market because it continues to kill micro-organisms for days after it has been applied and even after it has dried (called residual efficacy). In comparison, a disinfectant such as bleach is only effective for a maximum of a couple of minutes after it has been applied. After that micro-organisms start to re-colonise on a surface.
The technology kills resistant and difficult to kill organisms such as MRSA and VRE yet despite its success at killing super bugs, it is extremely gentle on human skin compared to existing technologies used in hospitals and requires no special precautions or equipment to use it. At present no other technology in the world is able to do this.
This combination of characteristics makes the technology suitable for use in a wide range of applications from hand and personal hygiene through to cleaning hard surfaces from floors to high contact areas such as bed rails and even drapes and curtains.
Perhaps mosti mportantly, the technology is cost comparable to existing cleaning systems yet delivers a proven superior performance.
The news that it will be available to NHS organisations follows a recent announcement from the NHS Innovation Hub in the North West, TrusTECH that a leading UK teaching hospital has been running a major study into the Byotrol technology.
Preliminary results from the study have shown that Byotrol offers considerable performance advantage over chlorine based cleaners without the damage to equipment & fabric associated with using such products. As well as damaging materials and surfaces, chlorine based cleaners are also potentially hazardous to humans and cannot be used to clean floors or large surface areas.
The news of the NHS availability also comes hot on the heels of the news that a hospital in North America, The Monroe Hospital in Indiana had deployed Byotrol's technology and as a result of the deployment has never had a single case of MRSA,C.difficile or any kind of hospital acquired infection during the two years the technology has been used.
Other studies and work that have proved the efficacy of Byotrol include work conducted at Glasgow Royal Infirmary in 2006 which saw MRSA reduced by 50% by treating just five percent of high contact surfaces within a ward. And for several weeks of the Glasgow trial there was no MRSA at all.
Commenting on the news,Byotrol Deputy Chairman, Stephen Falder said, "This represents a significant new tool being made available to healthcare professionals in the battle against hospital acquired infection. We will continue with our current study programme to further increase the already compelling body of evidence that proves the effectiveness of our technology."
Curtis Gemmell,Professor of Bacterial Infection and Epidemiology at the University of Glasgow and one of the UK's foremost experts on hospital acquired infection comments, "This is extremely encouraging news and means there is a technology available to healthcare professionals that will enable them to build on the recently announced reduction in hospital acquired infection levels.
"Put simply, hospitals will just not be able to drive a further 30% reduction in infection rates using current technologies and cleaning methodologies. The Byotrol technology combined with robust procedures and a management commitment to put infection control and prevention at the very top of a hospital's agenda has been proven to drive significant reductions in infection rates and offers a powerful way forward in this ongoing battle,"Curtis Gemmell adds.
For further information:
Jim Rothnie
McCann Erickson Communications House
T: 0044 (0)1625 822540
E:jim.rothnie@europe.mccann.com