7 March 2005
New figures show that infection rates of the MRSA ’superbug’ are falling for the first time in UK hospitals.
Health Secretary John Reid said he welcomed the statistics as a ‘turning point’ but that there was still much work to do.
From April to September 2004, 3,519 NHS patients were infected with the bug - the lowest for a six-month period since figures were first recorded in 2001.
The number was 3,940 for the previous six months.
Dr Reid said that MRSA had been a problem for the UK because it had not been tackled in the early 1990s and there were now ‘particularly virulent’ types of the bug at large.
“No stone is being left unturned in the battle against the superbug.
“We are improving cleaning standards, piloting the latest science, rolling out the ‘clean hands’ project and making sure infection control is a fully staffed priority for every NHS trust.”
He also announced that a new ‘rapid swab technique’ would be introduced to identify patients with MRSA within ‘hours rather than days.’
Extra information
MRSA stands for Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus.
Staphylococcus aureus (SA) is a common type of bacteria that can cause illness. Methicillin is a powerful antibiotic drug.
MRSA includes several strains of the SA germ that are not killed by powerful antibiotics.
The bug is blamed for 20 per cent of the 5,000 deaths in hospitals caused each year by infections.
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