According to a new study, large hospitals are breeding ground for superbug MRSA that are then transferred to other hospitals as patients are transferred to other health facilities.

The Edinburgh University team analyzed MRSA's movements using its genetic code as a tag and found that the bug moved from large hospital to smaller health units as patients get transferred. They traced that the bug started its journey in large city centre hospitals in the cities of London and Glasgow and then reached smaller units.

Researchers believe that the study could help prevent the spread of the bug in the country. MRSA or methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus is a type of bacterial infection, which is capable of resisting a number of widely-used antibiotics. The bug was first noticed more than 50 years ago.

The government had launched the hygiene campaign called, CleanYourHands campaign in 2004 and since them the purchase of soap and alcoholic hand rub by the NHS rose three times, showed the study. It was also found that MRSA rates were reduced to less than half in the same period and there was a significant drop in the number of Clostridium difficile infections.

The findings were published in the journal PNAS.