Big rise in deaths from 'superbug'

[Pastor Dale Morgan]

*
Plagues, Pestilences and Diseases

Big rise in deaths from 'superbug'*

By Brendan Carlin, Political Correspondent
Last Updated: 3:15am BST 31/05/2007

Fears about the real scale of the "superbug" threat in Britain's
hospitals were raised yesterday after a report claimed that as many as
26,000 cases of Clostridium difficile had gone unreported in the last
three years.

Hand-washing station: Big rise in deaths from 'superbugs'
The Department of Health said tackling all hospital-acquired infections
was one of 'four key priorities for the NHS' for the coming year

And no fewer than 176,450 people had contracted the bug - known as C.
difficile - over that period, the research warned.

Grant Shapps, the Conservative MP who compiled the report, accused the
Government of "dramatically underestimating" the extent of C. difficile
by not counting anyone under 65 who contracted it.

Mr Shapps used Freedom of Information requests to every acute hospital
trust in Britain to compile what he said was "the complete germ map of
Britain".

According to his report, the three worst hospitals for C. difficile
infections in 2006/07 were University Hospitals of Leicester, with 1,739
cases, North Bristol with 1,324 and Gloucestershire with 1,271.

Mr Shapps, MP for Welwyn Hatfield, said: "We now know that C. difficile
infects eight times as many people as the far better-known MRSA
(staphylococcus aureus) and it actually kills twice as many patients."

The report cited disturbing figures that last year, C. difficile claimed
the lives of 4,752 patients - a 25 per cent rise on the previous year
and a 111 per cent increase since 2004.

Overall, 11,000 people had died in the three years since 2004 "to some
degree attributed to clostridium difficile", the report said.

"I'm calling on the Government to recognise and then get to grips with
the true scale of the problem," said Mr Shapps. "The Government is
constantly trying to convince us that the NHS is safe in their hands but
C. difficile infections continue to rise."

The MP added that when patients checked out his research "they'll be
rightly asking how the Government has managed to spend so much money on
the NHS while the hidden hospital infection rate for C. difficile has
continued to soar".

C. difficile is a bacterium found in the gut of about two-thirds of
infants but only three per cent of adults.

Mr Shapps cited evidence that it was the most common cause of infectious
diarrhoea in hospital patients in the industrialised world, potentially
leading to serious illness and death.

Only two months ago, an outbreak at the James Paget NHS hospital in
Gorleston, near Great Yarmouth, resulted in 17 deaths. Five more people
needed major bowel surgery.

Mr Shapps said that up to April this year, acute NHS trusts in England
were required to inform the Health Protection Agency of cases of C.
difficile only in the over-65s.

In Scotland, a mandatory reporting system - restricted to the over-65s -
was being introduced, while obligatory reporting began in Wales in
January 2005.

But Mr Shapps says his report is the first analysing infections across
the age range. It reveals that "the problem is getting worse". Last
year, more than 66,000 infections occurred, compared with 47,000 in 2004
- a 40 per cent increase.

The Department of Health said last night that tackling all
hospital-acquired infections was one of "four key priorities for the
NHS" for the coming year. Measures had been introduced to combat
infections and £50 million had been made available to trusts as
additional capital resource to help tackle infections.

In a statement, the department added: "We are determined to ensure that
the NHS has in place good hygiene and clinical procedures

"We have recognised that C. difficile is a growing problem. We have
improved the surveillance system and it will be mandatory to report on
all cases of C. difficile, from age two upwards."