A study published in the Journal of Hospital Infection compared medical-grade honey with mupirocin, a topical antibiotic, for the eradicating meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus colonized in patients' noses.
Researchers studied patients older than 18 years with MRSA colonized in the nose. Participants received one to two courses of either honey or mupirocin (2 percent) three times per day for five consecutive days.
The study shows the proportion of patients who were decolonized after one or two courses of treatment was similar between the honey and mupirocin (2 percent) groups. However, the rate of new acquisition of mupirocin resistance was 9.75 percent.
"Although not significant, a decolonization rate of 42.8 [percent] for [honey] was impressive," study authors concluded. "Our findings suggest that this strategy, which has the potential to combat antimicrobial resistance, should be assessed in similar but larger studies."