A team of Dublin-based scientists claims to have discovered a way to kill MRSA bugs living on hospital walls, tiles, machinery and soft furnishings. Just turn on the lights.

Irish health authorities are reluctant to reveal how many MRSA-related deaths occur in Ireland each year, but the Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC) has stated that 589 cases of the hospital-acquired infection were reported in 2006 and 537 cases in 2007.

Suresh Pillai, a senior scientist based at the Crest centre at the Dublin Institute of Technology, has filed a patent for a method to destroy bacteria, including MRSA, that involves breaking open their cell walls.

Pillai said that he uses photocatalysis, a method involving light shining onto a semi-conductor material that creates new molecules capable of killing MRSA.

The bug is destroyed when light hits the surface it is sitting on, whether that is a tiled hospital floor or a surgeon’s instruments.

The magic ingredient is titanium dioxide, that can be incorporated into paint, glazes used to cover tiled floors, and pigments used to colour soft fabrics and furniture.

When visible light, either in fluorescent form from overhead lights in the hospital, or natural light that shines in from outside, hits a surface that contains titanium dioxide, this leads to the creation of the “reactive species” that can devour the MRSA. The toxic products contained in the bacteria are cleared too.

“If you use a traditional anti-bacterial agent you can kill the bacteria, but the remaining materials will be toxic,” Pillai said. “The advantage of this material is that it will kill the bacteria and remove its toxins and other organic by-products.”

It is already possible to kill MRSA and other bugs by shining ultra-violet light on a surface, creating the new molecules that kill the bugs. But this is of little practical use because UV light is not in general use in hospitals.

The breakthrough made by Pillai and his team at Crest is that ordinary light can be used to trigger the dioxide into doing its work.

The project is supported by industrial partners from Finland and Ireland. The ¤1.2m programme is co-funded by Enterprise Ireland and Tekes Finland.

John Colreavy of Enterprise Ireland said that Crest has filed a commercial patent on visible light-active photocatalysts, and is in discussion with a pharmaceutical company with a view to developing a product.

The next step will then be to adapt the same technology to tackle the even more deadly “superbug”, C. difficile, which is becoming an even bigger problem in Irish hospitals.

According to a recent report by the HPSC, it is not possible to control an outbreak of MRSA exclusively through personal hygiene.

Researchers say that the development of a self-sterilising hospital atmosphere would be an important step in achieving a more hygienic environment.

MRSA was termed a superbug after becoming resistant to the antibiotic meticillin.

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