Super Bugs and Green Tea

Tea Up
Green tea is thought to be a cancer-preventing superfood;
now researchers say it may also be a weapon against deadly superbugs like MRSA.
By Daniel Stone Newsweek Web Exclusive
Apr 2, 2008 Updated: 1:45 p.m. ET Apr 2, 2008

There are a lot of reasons to drink green tea. Study after study links the antioxidant-rich drink to a host of health benefits. Now researchers at Egypt's University of Alexandria point to a new reason to brew up some green: it boosts the effectiveness of antibiotics in fighting harmful bacteria and drug-resistant superbugs like MRSA (Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus).

Egyptian researchers tested green tea in combination with antibiotics against 28 disease-causing microorganisms belonging to two different classes: green tea enhanced the bacteria-killing activity of the antibiotics in every case. The study, presented this week at a meeting of the Society for General Microbiology in Edinburgh, Scotland, showed that green tea made one in five drug-resistant bacteria susceptible to one of the cephalosporin antibiotics (a class of antibiotics that some strains of bacteria have mutated to resist).

The boost in antibiotic effectiveness may become a welcome weapon in the fight against a growing number of antibiotic-resistant infections in hospitals and community settings. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 2 million people in the U.S. are affected each year by antibiotic-resistant infections caused by bacteria, like MRSA, which survive by mutating to avoid the effects of antibiotics.
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