Four cases of a new highly drug-resistant bug have been detected in patients in Irish hospitals, it was confirmed today.
One case of the potentially fatal infection – known as CRE - was found last year and three have been detected so far this year.
The infections are already prevalent in Greece and have also been found in India and in a number of US states.
Dr Robert Cunney, consultant microbiologist with the national Health Protection Surveillance Centre said the fact that cases of carbapenem resistant enterobacteriaceae or CRE had been reported here at all was "worrying" as there are few treatment options available for those who pick up the infection and the risk of death from it is therefore higher.
The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control had identified the bug as a major health threat across Europe, he added.
Dr Cunney was unable to say what the outcome had been for the four patients who had been diagnosed with the infection here.
Patients most at risk of picking up CRE are those who are critically ill and have intravenous drips in place. "It certainly can spread within hospitals but we haven't seen any reports of outbreaks here but that has become a major problem in Greece," he said.
His comments came as specialists met in Dublin on European Antibiotics Awareness Day to highlight the continuing threat posed by overuse of antibiotics, which can lead to antibiotic resistance.
Dr Cunney said while there had been progress made in tackling MRSA with the number of cases of this bloodstream infection dropping to 355 last year, down from almost 600 five years ago, there was no room for complacency.
He said while MRSA rates went down, cases of other potentially fatal infections like the VRE (vancomycin-resistant enterococci) superbug had gone up from 71 cases in 2005 to 152 cases last year - a 47 per cent increase - and Ireland now had the highest rates of VRE in Europe.
Dr Edmond Smyth, consultant microbiologist at Beaumont Hospital, said progress had been made on reducing antibiotic use in hospitals but with "impending and worsening cutbacks" he was concerned teams working in hospitals to ensure appropriate use of antibiotics might be seen as a "soft target".
Dr Cunney stressed a range of measures were required to bring down rates of hospital acquired infections including good surveillance systems, appropriate staffing levels in terms of microbiologists, hand hygiene, availability of single rooms, appropriate bed occupancy levels, and appropriate use of antibiotics.
He said progress on these had been made over the past 10 years but it was "slow and piecemeal" and the whole area needed to be given "a much higher priority".
Asked why measures taken to reduce MRSA infections didn't also bring down rates of VRE, he said: "I think it's because a lot of the measures are very much targeted towards MRSA ... we don't have the same level of laboratory surveillance for VRE".