Three ways to make super profits from superbugs

Government plans to introduce a new hygiene code into hospitals may not be enough to tackle the threat posed by MRSA so expect to see an increase in outsourcing of infection control. We pick three firms set to clean up.

One of Gordon Brown's first ports of call in his new role as prime minister was Kingston Hospital in southwest London. He was there to highlight a 47% fall in the hospital's cases of MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus), the lethal superbug that claims around 1,250 lives in British hospitals each year. But he shouldn't celebrate too soon. The Government is so concerned about superbugs that it has introduced a hygiene code in hospitals, says Joanne Hart in The Mail on Sunday. But despite receiving a £300,000 grant from the Department of Health earlier this year to combat infections, one in four hospitals is still not meeting the hygiene targets imposed in November 2004 by the then-health secretary John Reid, says Jo Revill in The Observer.

First discovered in 1961, the superbug has emerged as a major health concern in the UK in recent years. The highly contagious germ is resistant to normal antibiotics. Typically, bacteria enter a patient's body through an intravenous tube or catheter. The disease is sometimes associated with skin infections, but also causes blood infections, pneumonia and other illnesses. Quite apart from the risks and distress to the patient, the intensive treatment required is costly and time-consuming a major problem for our perennially overstretched health service.

Subscribe to MoneyWeek

Subscribe to MoneyWeek today and get your first six magazine issues absolutely FREE

Get 6 issues free
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/mw70aro6gl1676370748.jpg

Sign up to Money Morning

Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter

Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter

Sign up

Eoin came to MoneyWeek in 2006 having graduated with a MLitt in economics from Trinity College, Dublin. He taught economic history for two years at Trinity, while researching a thesis on how herd behaviour destroys financial markets.