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    NHS 'winning superbug war'

    Posted on 02/11/2007

    Hospitals across the UK have started to turn the corner in the fight against superbugs, latest figures suggest.

    New Health Protection Agency (HPA) statistics reveal a 10% drop in MRSA cases. There were 6,381 recorded MRSA cases in the year to March 2007, down from 7,069 in the previous year.

    Georgia Duckworth, head of HPA's healthcare-associated infections department, said the fall was particularly impressive considering how cases of MRSA soared in the 1990s, from 2% of all staphylococcus aureus infections to more than 40% by 2000.

    'Now, not only has this number plateaued but it is coming down,' she told The Independent. 'If you had spoken to anyone in the field three years ago they would have said it couldn't be done.'

    She put the dramatic fall in cases down to pressure from the top, with tough Department of Health-imposed guidelines leading to intensive cleaning regimes, hand-hygiene appeals to patients and staff, the introduction of isolation wards and tougher rules on prescribing antibiotics.

    There was more good news on Clostridium difficile (C diff). Although C diff cases in patients over 65 rose by 7% between April and June 2007, it was a smaller rise than the 16% hike in the same period the year before. Dr Duckworth said that overall the rate of infection appeared to be levelling off.



    Category: Healthcare


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