Britain's MRSA cases lowest ever recorded

Mar 7 2005

Britain's Health Secretary, John Reid welcomed the latest mandatory surveillance figures released today showing MRSA infection rates at their lowest since recording began.

He also stated that the Health Protection Agency would publish data on MRSA every six months from now on, to keep the public up to date more frequently.

Health Secretary, John Reid, said:

"These latest figures show MRSA rates at the lowest since mandatory recording began - something we introduced in 2001.

"I congratulate the hard work of NHS staff from cleaners to consultants, led by the chief nursing officer Chris Beasley, in achieving this important turning point.

"But there is still much more to do. That's why I am announcing today that the NHS wilI pilot a new rapid swab technique to identify patients with MRSA within hours rather than days. This will be particularly important in discovering if MRSA is coming into our hospitals with patients, for example, when they are transferred from care homes.

"As we congratulate infection controls teams on their success it is important to remember two things - the UK has similar levels of all hospital acquired infections as other modern health systems (between 6 and 10%).

"However, our particular problem is with the MRSA superbug that comes about because of two particular factors. Firstly, unlike countries such as Holland, we did not nip it in the bud years ago when it re-emerged - indeed it took hold in the early 1990s growing from four per cent resistance to around 30 per cent in 1997 - to become a bigger problem for us than other countries. And, secondly, we also face particularly virulent types of MRSA.

"MRSA remains a problem, we are taking action on it, and this action is having an effect.

"But nothing today should take away from the hard work of NHS staff who have made and will continue to make the real difference through their focus on this medically and scientifically challenging problem.

"No stone is being left unturned in the battle against the superbug. We are improving cleaning standards, piloting the latest science, rolling out cleanyourhands and making sure infection control is a fully staffed priority for every NHS trust.

Dr Georgia Duckworth, an MRSA expert at the HPA said:

"We welcome the initiatives announced by the Department of Health which help in the overall reduction of hospital acquired infections. We will be assisting at the Agency by carrying out the enhanced surveillance of MRSA which will collect more information about cases such as the type of ward they were acquired on, or if they were contracted in a different hospital prior to the patient's transfer. All of this information will help in our understanding of MRSA and can therefore inform future control measures."

The table above outlines the MRSA reports for every six months since 2001 from the mandatory surveillance scheme.