Around three million people in the UK suffer chronic wounds each year, including 1, 000 severe burns.

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The first is that, when properly processed to a medical grade, manuka honey is effective as a treatment for chronic, infected wounds.

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More significantly, the fact that they do not provoke inflammation means they it might be possible to use them to repair the wounds of patients with conditions such as diabetes, in which chronic skin infections often get in the way of healing when normal stitches are used.

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He said the research would work across the range of wounds clinicians treat from trauma, burns and post-surgery complications to chronic conditions such as ulcers and diabetes complications.

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