May 3 : A new study has found that maggots can be used as a potential treatment for patients with the superbug MRSA.

MRSA or methycillin resistant staphylococcus aureus is a kind of germ generally found on the skin or in the nose. Some call it a ’superbug’ as the usual antibiotics can’t kill it.

The study was conducted by a team of researchers including Andrew Boulton at the University of Manchester.

Maggots feed on dead and decaying flesh and leave healthy tissue as it is. ‘Larval therapy’ is being used since the time of Napoleonic Wars, and is still taught to US Army Special Forces medics

As part of the study, during the preliminary trial researchers treated 12 to 13 diabetic patients who had MRSA in foot ulcers using larvae of the greenbottle fly Lucilia Sericata.

Maggots were applied to the patients’ wounds within the dressing for about two to eight times for four days.

Researchers found that the infection was over in an average of three weeks, compared to 28 weeks time taken in the conventional treatment with anti-MRSA lotions.

“Maggots are the world’s smallest surgeons. In fact they are better than surgeons. They are much cheaper and work 24 hours a day. They remove the dead tissue and bacteria, leaving the healthy tissue to heal,” Telegraph quoted Boulton, as saying.

“Still, we were very surprised to see such a good result for MRSA. There is no reason this cannot be applied to many other areas of the body, except perhaps a large abdominal wound,” Boulton said.

The findings of the research were published in the journal Diabetes Care. (ANI)