Number of hospital cases of superbugs unknown

Superbugs such as MRSA in Irish hospitals are probably killing a number of patients every year, a clinical microbiologist at …

Superbugs such as MRSA in Irish hospitals are probably killing a number of patients every year, a clinical microbiologist at the National Disease Surveillance Centre (NDSC) has said.

Dr Robert Cunney said neither the number of deaths nor the number of cases of MRSA in hospitals was known at present. However, a system was being put in place to measure its prevalence, and he hoped provisional figures would be available next year.

Dr Cunney made his comments yesterday at the publication of the NDSC's 2002 annual report. He said the fact that there had probably been deaths could be concluded from figures reported in other European countries, as well as a north-south study of MRSA a few years ago.

The report indicated there were 445 instances where MRSA or methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus was found in blood samples of patients in 2002. "The overall annual proportion of MRSA observed in Ireland remains high," it said.

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Dr Cunney said the infections probably tripled the cost of a patient's hospital stay.

He indicated that new strains of MRSA which are very transmissible had spread here, after being first detected in the UK. In response to this the 1995 national MRSA guidelines were being updated and would be produced next year.

Furthermore the first draft of national guidelines on hand hygiene had just been completed. Their aim was to prevent the spread of infections in hospitals. And new guidelines to prevent the spread of the winter vomiting bug in hospitals would be published today.

Meanwhile the report also chronicles the incidence of a range of infectious diseases reported in 2002. It shows there were about 400 cases of TB in 2002, up from 381 in 2001.

There were also 364 newly-diagnosed cases of HIV, up 22 per cent on 2001. The majority of cases diagnosed were among heterosexuals. Just over half the new cases were among persons born in sub-Saharan Africa.

Furthermore, the report refers to notifications of sexually transmitted infections increasing. The incidence of one of these infections, syphilis, had increased by over 500 per cent in 2001. The report says a total of 595 cases of syphilis were reported between 2000 and 2002. Six of these were among babies, two of whom died before birth.

The director of the NDSC, Dr Darina O'Flanagan, said the continuing rise in the notification of sexually transmitted diseases and increases in reports of HIV infections were a matter of concern.

"The rising incidence of sexually transmitted diseases is consistent with an increase in unsafe sex and mirrors the situation in many other European countries," she said.It was tragic that the NDSC was once again seeing infants born with congenital syphilis.

It was not so long ago that such cases were only read about in textbooks.

The report said Hepatitis B notifications had increased dramatically in recent years, and many of the notified cases were chronically infected asylum-seekers.

It also said that 70 confirmed cases of E.coli 0157 were reported in 2002, the highest number to be reported since 1998. Most of these cases were in children under five.