Honey fights infection - Irish Medical News

Tuesday, 11 November 2008

The Irish Medical News has run as part of its top stories an article titled "Honey fights infection", on 10/11/08.

Here is what it said:

About one per cent of the population of Ireland stands to benefit from the healing properties of manuka honey, according to a study published last week in A Picture of Health 2008, which highlights 17 Health Research Board-funded research projects and their potential impacts.

The study by specialist wound care nurse, Ms Georgina Gethin, confirmed manuka honey is effective in treating painful leg ulcers. The study author said: “It increases the options available to patients with chronic ulcers.  – it must be medical grade honey which is sterile and safe to use.”

The aim of the study was to find out not just if honey could heal the ulcers, but also how – thereby shedding new light on the pathology of these wounds, said Ms Gethin. “We wanted to set ourselves an extra challenge, so we selected a sub-group whose wounds had at least 50 per cent dead tissue.”

In the first clinical trial of its kind, 108 patients received either manuka honey or standard hydrogel treatment. At 12 weeks, the wounds of those treated with honey were more likely to be healed than those treated with hydrogel.

Moreover, 16 of the wounds were infected with hard-to-treat methicillin resistant Staphyl ococcus aureus (MRSA) infection. Honey eradicated it in 70 per cent of cases, compared to only 16 per cent with hydrogel.

The following link gives you the article on the Irish Medical News website in full and in context: 

http://www.irishmedicalnews.ie/index.php/component/content/article/1-news/425-honey-fights-infection

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