Breast milk can help take down superbugs

A new study has revealed that a protein found in breast milk could help destroy the antibiotic-resistant superbugs.

The research, carried out by the National Physical Laboratory and University College London, shows that the component lactoferrin destroys bacteria, fungi and viruses as soon as it touches them, the Independent reported.

Many people in the medical community are deeply concerned by the potentially lethal threat of drug-resistant superbugs, which evolve rapidly to defeat any antibiotics we throw at them. Some analysts have even suggested that bacterial resistance poses as serious a threat as climate change.

But in this sense, lactoferrin is more than just another antibiotic for hospital-dwelling superbugs to overcome. Because the protein works so fast, tearing bacteria apart in a fraction of a second, it's hoped that superbugs simply won't have time to develop a resistance to it.

There's a huge amount of research and a battery of safety checks to get through first before your doctor can prescribe you a course of lactoferrin. But the researchers hope that as well as defeating superbugs the protein will one day help to combat diseases, such as sickle-cell anaemia, that are currently considered incurable.