We're near top of killer bug table

By Anne-Marie Walsh
Saturday June 09 2007

Irish hospitals come seventh in a league table of incidents of the deadly infection across 29 countries, according to new EU figures.

The research confirms that patients are highly exposed to the hospital-based bacteria and the rate of infection has not improved since 2001.

Only six other countries, Romania, Cyprus, Malta, Portugal, the UK and Greece (in that order), have a higher rate of the antibiotic-resistant infection.

However, a spokesperson for the ECDC pointed out that the Irish figures could be misleading.

"One of the reasons that Ireland and the UK have relatively high levels of MRSA is that they are quite active in monitoring it," he said.

"Some other EU countries may not be looking as hard or monitoring it as well."

But he added: "Compared with Ireland, the Netherlands and Scandinavia have been quite successful in preventing MRSA.

The level of MRSA in Ireland has risen in the last 10 years and has levelled off."

The investigation by the EU Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) shows that the rate of MRSA went up by 1pc in the latest available year's data.

It is at the same level it was at in 2001, and 3pc higher than the 1999 rate of 39pc, suggesting that Government initiativeson eradication have had little impact.

The ECDC warned last night that the spread of hospital-acquired infections was now the main disease threat in Europe.

It said that, if the present "rapid negative development" was not halted, mankind would soon lose one of its most important weapons against infectious disease - antibiotics.

MRSA (methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus) is one of the bugs in the staphylococcus aureus family of bacteria that cannot be treated with drugs.

It made up 42pc of the 1,360 detected infections in this family of bacteria in Ireland in 2005.

This represented 571 people, according to the authors of the pioneering report from the ECDC.

The rest of the cases infected with the staphylococcus aureus bacteria could be treated with drugs.

MRSA is among the forms of superbugs from the staphylococcus aureus family of bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics.

They can live on the skin and in the nose and cause a variety of illnesses including meningitis and septicaemia.

If the bacteria enters the bloodstream, it can be extremely dangerous and is potentially fatal if it belongs to the variety that is resistant to antibiotics.

The ECDC report on infectious diseases ranked countries based on the proportion of S-aureus infections found to be antibiotic-resistant.

Romania topped the table with the highest proportion of the superbug, at over 60pc.

Every year, around 3m people in the EU catch a healthcare-associated infection, of whom around 50,000 die.

One in every 10 patients admitted to hospital in the EU will catch an infection there.

"One of the biggest challenges we face is the emergence of new microbes against which our defences are weak, or even non-existent," said Markos Kyprianou, European Commissioner for Health.

"Pandemic preparedness is, and must remain, a priority for the EU."

- Anne-Marie Walsh