In MRSA, as in so much else, government is not the answer. It is the problem or, to be more precise in this case, the obstacle getting in the way of solving the problem. This article from the Guardian tells heavily against government in general and the European Union in particular. (This, in itself, is something to be treasured.)
Researchers at the University of Manchester said European Union regulations were holding up clinical trials to test the effectiveness of three essential oils, usually used in aromatherapy, in tackling superbugs.The team tested 40 essential oils on 10 of the most dangerous bacteria and fungi including MRSA (methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus) and E coli. Two of the oils killed the bugs almost immediately, and a third was found to have a beneficial effect over a longer period of time.
Researchers now want to carry out trials on healthy volunteers who are carrying MRSA but are not infected by it. It is estimated that between 20% and 40% of people in the UK carry MRSA, mostly in their noses or on their skin, without any ill effects.But nurse and aromatherapist Jacqui Stringer, clinical head of complementary therapies at the Christie hospital in Manchester, said the European clinical trials directive was slowing their progress. The directive was applied in the UK a year ago by the Medicines and Healthcare Regulatory Agency (MHRA).
"We are trying to do this in the right way so it is evidence-based and there is all this red tape preventing us," Ms Stringer told Hospital Doctor magazine.
"It seems crazy. The MHRA has put all this legislation in place and it is an absolute nightmare trying to start the trial. We are trying to hack through all the directives."
The full article is here.
Posted by James Bartholomew • Indexed in European Union • NHS
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Just a minute, here.
Aromatherapy is pseudoscientific buncombe that has no place in a matter as serious as the MRSA scandal.
I suspect that what's really happening here is that proponents of aromatherapy and similar nonsense are jumping on the MRSA bandwagon to try and engender some legitimacy for their ridiculous beliefs.
So their 'essential oils' kill MRSA bacteria - presumably on contact. But so, I am sure, do 1001 other chemicals, including good old-fashioned bleach and similar cleaning agents - at maybe a thousandth of the cost of these fabulous 'essential oils'. And so, I am sure, would many other chemicals - things like arsenic and mercury spring to mind. I think it's interesting that the proponents of this approach focus on the roadblocks placed in their way by government regulation - the implication being that their 'therapy' works, it's just the silly rules that prevent them from ending the MRSA crisis by next Thursday. But it's a great leap to suggest that, because 'essential oils' kill MRSA bacteria on contact, that their use is either clinically- or cost-effective, and an even greater leap to assume that the laughable 'alternative' therapies from which they spring have any basis in reality at all. I strongly suspect a propaganda motive in all of this - our 'essential oils' kill MRSA bacteria, therefore our ideas about 'aromatherapy' have validity. What a great writer once termed 'lending an air of verisimilitude to an otherwise-unconvincing narrative.'
For once, Government regulation may have actually had a salutary effect - however accidentally - in preventing this arrant nonsense from gaining a veneer of respectability, and in preventing public money from being wasted on it. Those at risk from MRSA deserve the best science that can be put to the task of reducing their risk - and not this modern-day witch-doctoring.
llater,
llamas
Posted by: llamas at May 31, 2005 06:48 PM