A nurse academic has travelled from Wolverhampton to Africa to present his research on sugar treatment at leading education and medical establishments in Zimbabwe and Lesotho.
Dr Moses Murandu, a senior lecturer in adult nursing at Wolverhampton University, has been carrying out research into the potential wound healing power of sugar for over five years.
As previously reported by Nursing Times, he watched his father using sugar to speed up healing and manage pain when he was growing up in Zimbabwe, and decided to carry out research on the intervention under trial conditions in the UK.
In 2009, he was awarded the prestigious Fondation Le Lous Scientific Research Innovation Award and £25,000 to continue his pioneering work.
He recently presented some of his findings in Africa to high profile audiences made up of nurses, doctors, pharmacists, medical students and government health officials.
Dr Murandu said: “The sugar works because bacteria need water to grow, and applying sugar to a wound draws the water away.
“Because there is less water the body responds by getting the heart to beat faster and increase blood flow to the area,” he said. “This brings white cells that fight infection and oxygen and nutrients that enhance cell regeneration.
He added: “My research is focused on a clinical trial into the effectiveness of sugar when used on hospital patients with wounds such as bed sores, leg ulcers, non-healing surgical wounds and even amputations.”
The visit included presentations at the Ezekiel Guti University, the University of Zimbabwe, the Africa University and Mutare Provincial Hospital and Maluti Adventist College of Nursing.
Dr Murandu said: “During my visit I met with the minister of health in Lesotho and the deputy minister of health in Zimbabwe, both of whom were keen to have the product developed and registered as a traditional remedy, which can be available in pharmacies.”
He also met with a woman who had refused to have her leg amputated due to the severity of an ulcer that had failed to be treated successfully.
She had used sugar treatment following telephone advice from Dr Murandu to tend her wound at home and has made a full recovery.-Nursingtimes.net
