Dear Jane,

A British company has announced what it calls a ‘major world breakthrough’ in the fight against the superbug clostridium difficile (C-diff). Greenbridge Environmental Ltd say their non-toxic ‘green’ cleaning product called Activ8 has finally been proved a ‘world beater’ following months of tests by leading scientists at Glasgow’s Caledonian University.

Greenbridge Managing Director Brian Baker said: ‘We have spent more than a million pounds getting to the stage where today we can say with full confidence that Activ8 kills c-diff stone dead. Because we couldn’t acquire a pure sample of C-diff we had been relying on laboratory tests done on a virulent surrogate. We waited more than a year to get the ‘real thing.’ But finally the tests were done by Dr Chris Woodall at the School of Life Sciences in Glasgow. We could not have asked for better results and I believe this marks a real turning point in the fight against C-diff worldwide because this product, used regularly in a hospital setting, will wipe out the bug.’

Mr Baker said: ‘Perhaps now the NHS will listen to what we have been saying for some time. And that is that Activ8 can make a big difference to death and infection rates from this awful disease. I continue to be utterly astounded that the Health Protection Agency, which has already approved Activ8, has allowed it to ‘sit on the shelf’ for nearly three years. Activ8 has now been tested and endorsed by top British scientists as being able to eradicate not only c-diff but all of the other superbugs as well including MRSA, SARS and Avian Flu. Professor John Oxford, one of the government’s main health advisers tested Activ8 in his laboratory and found it 99.999% effective against several superbugs including Avian Flu.

Greenbridge, which is based in Bristol, has been steadily winning orders worldwide on the back of what was already known about Activ8 and its performance against superbugs. But this latest news is expected to boost the company into another sphere.

Dr Chris Woodall, the independent microbiologist who with his team carried out the latest tests said: ‘We are one of the few laboratories in the world that can actually do this test. We tested Activ8 against a purified spore preparation from C-diff. The test is a modification of the EN standard test EN 13704 that is designed to show ‘sporicidal’ activity of a disinfectant in a laboratory. This is a very difficult test to pass. The pass was a 1000-fold reduction in spore activity in one hour. This is a very good indicator that Activ8 would be effective against c-diff spores on environmental inanimate surfaces in a hospital contaminated with C-diff. It is likely that environmental C-diff spores are responsible for the transmission of C-diff and subsequent hospital acquired infection. This puts Activ8 in an elite group of disinfectant agents and it could place the formula among the leading tools in fighting hospital acquired C-diff. This agent combines a low toxicity to humans with the capability of breaking open the highly resistant disease carrying spores and killing them. This then may prevent spores establishing infection in vulnerable hospital patients.’

NOTE: Activ8 can be ‘fogged’ onto wards with patients brought back in after only one hour. It can be used in soaps, hand wipes, creams and sponges and it is also available as a floor cleaner and spray.

Additional information: The Shadow Health Secretary has criticised the Health Protection Agency’s rapid review panel for failing to pass and ‘fast track’ onto wards new ‘21st century’ products specifically designed to combat superbugs. These products include Activ8, MRSA resistant nurses uniforms and MRSA resistant paint and an ‘air cleaner’.

Tony Field, Chairman of the UK-wide MRSA Support Group has complained that in his view the HPA has been ‘guilty of chronic inertia’. He says it is a ‘national scandal’ that new 21st century products like Activ8 are apparently being ignored in favour of old NHS ‘best practice’ tools like bleach which, of course, has been around since the time of Florence Nightingale. In a speech in Tunbridge Wells today , Saturday, June 9 he will call on government health advisers to resign saying that if they continue to ignore new , effective ways of saving lives then they should be brought to book in his view for manslaughter.

C-diff infection rates have risen by 40% over the past three years….and yet the HPA hasn’t moved to ‘fast track’ new and innovative new formulas onto wards. Campaigners say the the 56,000 C-diff cases recorded last year are only the ‘tip of the iceberg’ and the C-diff is now a bigger menace than MRSA. C-diff infects more than eight times as many people as MRSA in hospitals and kills twice as many. The latest recorded deaths from C-diff relate to 2005…3,807 up from 2,247 in 2004. The bug produces toxins which damage the lining of the bowel resulting in severe diarrhoea and is usually spread via the hands of healthcare staff and dirty surfaces.

The Conservatives say that that thousands of cases of C-diff are not showing up in official statistics because the statistics only record cases in patients aged 65 and over. It’s claimed that over the past three years and additional cases of C-diff infection have been treated in hospitals but not revealed because the people involved are under 65.

Last week Prof. Peter Borriello, Chairman of the HPA’s rapid review panel which is supposed to ‘fast track’ new products onto wards, admitted on television (‘This Morning’ with Eammon Holmes) that C-diff was almost ‘predominantly and exclusively a hospital acquired infection’ and it was rare for people to ‘bring it in with them’. Andrew Lansley has said it is a ‘disgrace and national scandal’ that the panel, in existence for more than three years, has failed to ‘fast track’ new products into the NHS system.

Contacts:
Tony Field 0121 4766 583
Dr. Chris Woodall 0141 3318 245 (M) 07989 964 811