A Southampton University professor has made a major discovery in the fight against a life-threatening superbug found in hospitals.

Professor Bill Keevil has found that the MRSA organism does not survive as well on copper compared with stainless steel surfaces, most commonly used in healthcare facilities.

His findings showed that the hospital-acquired infection that causes skin, bone and blood infections as well as pneumonia survives for longer on stainless steel living for up to 72 hours at room temperature.

However, for surfaces made up of copper alloys containing 55 per cent, 80 per cent and 99 per cent copper, the organism died after four and a half hours, three hours and one and a half hours respectively.

"Our results strongly indicate that the use of copper metals in such applications as door knobs, push plates, fittings, fixtures and work surfaces would considerably mitigate MRSA in hospitals and reduce the risk of cross-contamination between staff and patients in critical care areas.

"However, despite the significant performance of copper alloys in our study, we also noted that the survivability of MRSA on all metals at lower temperatures is much greater, indicating that hygiene is particularly imperative in those environments," said Prof Keevil, head of the environmental healthcare unit at Southampton University.

MRSA - methicillin resistant staphylococcus aureus - has spread widely in the past few years.

In Southampton the number of MRSA cases has risen with Southampton Hospitals NHS Trust recording 53 cases in 2002-2003. Southampton General Hospital's Cardiac Unit was forced to close after four patients were struck down with the bug in June.

A trust spokesman said: "We need to be very careful about this research. It is necessary to look at the problems associated with using copper facilities.

"This is academic and laboratory based research. It is not a recommendation of what should be done. It is part of the overall research picture. The mostimportant thing is to improve hygiene."

Fighting MRSA costs the NHS an estimated £1 billion a year.

The Southampton University study was funded by the International Copper Association and Copper Development Association Inc, New York.