THE NUMBER of MRSA bloodstream infections reported by hospitals is going down but other types of potentially fatal infections are increasing, a consultant microbiologist said yesterday
Dr Robert Cunney, who is a specialist with the national Health Protection Surveillance Centre, said while the number of reported MRSA (methicillin resistant staphylococcus aureus) bloodstream infections had dropped to 355 last year from 439 the year before, the number of cases of MSSA (methicillin susceptible staphylococcus aureus) had increased from 864 in 2008 to 954 in 2009.
He said it was not really clear why this was happening, but it may be that one type of bacteria is taking the place of the other as part of some sort of evolution.
While MRSA was associated with higher mortality than MSSA, there was still “a significant risk of death associated with MSSA”.
Cases of the hospital superbug VRE (vancomycin-resistant enterococci) were also increasing in Ireland, he said, adding that Ireland now has one of the highest rates of this infection in Europe.
Dr Niamh O’Sullivan, president of the Irish Society of Clinical Microbiologists, said while the focus on infection prevention and control in hospitals had improved, a lot of hospitals still did not have sufficient isolation rooms.
In the current economic climate there are cutbacks in all hospitals and “cleaning now is cut to the bone”.
She stressed that hospital overcrowding was also contributing to cross-infection. “We do not have enough hospital beds. We have all heard about the trolley sagas in casualty. These are all people waiting to get into the hospital.
“I have physically seen one person coming out of the bed and the other person arriving to get into the bed before the other person has actually gone home. How are you supposed to do terminal cleaning in that sort of a situation?”
In addition, she said there was the issue of delayed hospital discharges. “We know that we have patients in hospital where the acute setting is no longer the appropriate environment for them, they are ready to go to a step down facility. That is not available.
“Meanwhile down in casualty, world war three is breaking out . . . it gets to the stage where even if somebody goes to the bathroom their chair is gone,” she said.
These were issues which had not been addressed during the Celtic Tiger years. “And now they are telling us we can have 1,000 beds less in the system and we are going to manage without any problem,” she said.
The specialists were speaking at the publication in Dublin of a report on MRSA in Ireland, compiled by independent specialists with a grant from Pfizer.
It put the cost of MRSA infection in Irish hospitals at €23 million a year, but it was acknowledged this was likely to be an underestimate as only MRSA bloodstream infections were considered. A third of these infections are preventable, the report says.
There is no reliable data on deaths from MRSA in Ireland, the report adds. About 25,000 people pick up infections in Irish hospitals each year, and those who do are seven times more likely to die, the report says