Team to help in the fight against superbugs

Researchers at the University of Bristol have received £1.5 million from the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) for a trial looking at easing the pain of ear infections. This is part of a larger investment of over £15.8 million into research to tackle into drug resistant infections by the NIHR, the research arm of the NHS. Sixteen studies have been funded as part of a call for more research into drug resistant infections also known as antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Drug-resistant infections present a major threat to the future of healthcare and could result in 10 million avoidable deaths in the world every year by 2050, from antibiotic resistant infections, such as MRSA, sepsis and multi-drug-resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The Bristol trial, CEDAR, will involve 500 children participating in a study to find out whether eardrops containing a combined local anaesthetic and painkiller can ease the pain of ear infections. Professor Alastair Hay, from the Centre for Academic Primary Care in the university's School of Social and Community Medicine , is leading the study. He said: 'Antibiotics are not painkillers, and they do not treat the worst symptom of ear infections: the child's ear pain.