9 Jun 2012

More now known about hospital superbug

6:03 am on 9 June 2012

Scientists in North America have found a chink in the armour of a superbug linked to the deaths of hundreds of hospital patients world-wide.

The bacteria, Acinetobacter baumannii, first appeared in the 1970s and has developed a resistance to most antibiotics over the last decade.

Researchers at the University of Alberta say they have now discovered the process by which the bacteria shields itself from antibiotics, using an armour of molecules known as glycoproteins.