SPRINGFIELD -- Many people wind up sick this time of year, and health experts usually say simple hand washing is the best defense against diseases. Soon, people might be using a germ-killing product developed by a doctor in Springfield.

Dr. Roger Huckfeldt says the new skin cleanser is shown to kill 99.9 percent of all super bugs, including the now common drug-resistant staph infection, MRSA. In the United States, MRSA killed more than 18,000 people in 2005.

MRSA has hit schools in the Ozarks. Whether in the classroom, or in a sports setting, it's easily passed from student to student or athlete to athlete.

“You can't come in, clean the school, and have it all go away, because it's carried from child to child,” Huckfeldt said at a news conference on Thursday.

It's a skin infection that can be deadly. Huckfeldt, the director of St. John's Hospital’s Trauma and Burn Research, says 30 to 40 percent people may be carriers of the MRSA bacteria and not know it. He's found an exciting new skin cleanser, called Theraworx, that kills MRSA.

“In fact, we haven't found anything so far that it doesn't kill,” he said.

Huckfeldt has been working with a company in North Carolina, via a video news conference, announced the release of several new products containing the cleanser, including small towels and foam cleanser marketed mainly to the sports community.

Huckfeldt and his partner, Steve Woody of G3 Medical, have tested the cleanser and had it retested at another private lab. They've found Theraworx not only kills MRSA but, after three hours on the skin, also continues to kill 99 percent of the MRSA bacteria.

“It stays. It's absorbed partially into the skin, so you get the long-term duration killing with it,” said Huckfeldt.

Huckfeldt says it doesn't contain any chemical based agents and, unlike alcohol-based products, it doesn't dry your skin but actually moisturizes and nourishes the skin cells with natural products like aloe. Another plus is it won't sting.

“We've used this on children with diaper rash,” he said.

Huckfeldt says Theraworx could be a great germ-fighter in schools and beyond.

“My children are already bugging me to get a new bottle to take to school with them,” he said.

Huckfeldt says his ultimate goal is to create a wound dressing product for burn and wound patients.

St. John's will begin using the cleanser to bathe intensive care patients in the next week or so. He says it should be available here in Springfield at certain drug stores and department stores by Jan. 1 under the name Theraworx.

To see and purchase the products released on Thursday, check the Web site link below. Huckfeldt says the Theraworx products should be significantly lower priced.