In response to the superbug red alert warning raised by England's main public health body, a UK firm has detailed a range of support measures that are effective against CPE.

Carbapenemase-producing enterobacteriaceae (or CPE) has outgrown the term ‘superbug’ due to the highly limited treatment options available. Such is the level of concern that the pathogen has been called “a national health threat” by NHS officials.

To combat this threat Public Health England (PHE) has issued a toolkit to help NHS trusts combat CPE. And the UK's leading experts in tackling the superbug menace have now developed a range of solutions to support the implementation of two key areas of this toolkit: environmental decontamination and patient isolation.

‘Room sterilisation robots’ from decontamination specialists Bioquell are able to totally eliminate any traces of bugs, including CPE, from the environment, reducing the risk of cross-infection. The company also provides a way that hospitals can rapidly increase their number of single occupancy areas, allowing them to isolate infected patients.

Antibiotic therapies are ceasing to be effective against CPE, leading to only the last line of antibiotic defence being available - colistin. Unfortunately, colistin is an outdated drug, associated with alarming side effects. Accordingly, patients infected with CPEs tend to have poor clinical outcomes and high associated treatment costs. So isolating infection outbreaks and eradicating CPE from the healthcare environment is essential as part of an overall CPE management strategy if cases are to be kept under control.

Speaking on this, James Salkeld, head of healthcare at Bioquell said, "We have had significant experience globally in helping hospitals combat CPE outbreaks. One of our biggest successes was at America's leading medical research hospital - the National Institute of Health's Clinical Center. They experienced a CPE outbreak in 2011 and turned to Bioquell to help them bring it under control. Our technology is now part of their ongoing protocols for dealing with this pathogen."

Bioquell technology is already well proven in the UK market. It has been identified as a ‘high impact technology’ by the NHS, which has validated that it is a cost effective means of dealing with hospital acquired infections.

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