'We may never get rid of our hospital superbugs'

Thursday August 21 2008

HOSPITAL bugs like MRSA and C Diff -- linked to dozens of deaths in Ireland -- may always be with us, a top consultant has warned.

C Diff infection contributed to 10 deaths at St Colmcille's Hospital, Loughlinstown last year, and to 13 deaths at Ennis General Hospital.

A new virulent strain of C Diff, called 027, has emerged recently and it has more toxins in it than in other types of C Diff, making it a more serious strain, consultant microbiologist with the Health Protection Surveillance Centre, Dr Fidelma Fitzpatrick said.

The priority was to minimise the incidence of Healthcare-Associated Infections (HCAIs) as much as possible and she believed hospitals have procedures in place to prevent them.

But eventually eliminating MRSA, C Diff and other infections in hospitals or the community is problematic because "as long as there is healthcare, there will be HCAIs," she said.

High risk patients include those who are older, have a damaged immune system due to cancer or other diseases, patients on antibiotics or those with breaks in their skin from insertion of drips, from wounds or burns or after surgery.

C Diff is a bug found in the bowel of about one in 20 healthy patients and is kept in check by the "good" bacteria in the bowel.

"If a patient takes an antibiotic, sometimes this can kill off the good bacteria in the bowel and that allows bugs such as C Diff to multiply and in some patients this can also lead to C Diff infection," Dr Fitzpatrick said.

The most common symptom of C Diff is diarrhoea, although some people complain of nausea, reduced appetite and crampy abdominal pain.

"It's important to remember that most patients recover completely from C Diff," she said.

"However, in a small percentage of patients, the infection causes an inflammation of the bowel (colitis) and that can be very serious. But again, it is more serious in the high risk groups of patients."

The most recent comprehensive study, in 2006, showed that approximately one in 20 Irish patients had a HCAI at the time of the study. The incidence was less than in England, where around one in 12 patients had a HCAI at the time.

- Source: - Harold.ie