Superbugs on the decline in Scottish hospitals

By Candy Lashkari

The number of cases of hospital infections is on the decline in Scotland. Clostridium difficile, the hospital super bug which brings down a number of patients each year have halved in the last year. In the last 3 months of last year the patients over 65 years reported 672 cases of Clostridium difficile. This is a 48% decline from the 1,299 cases reported in the last three months of 2008.

Number of cases of Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) were also down to 119 cases in 2009 compared to 161 in the year 2008. This is a decline of 26% for the patients struck down with MRSA and the figure is the second lowest number reported for a year. The drop in hospital infections has been welcomed but there was a damper thanks to the death of a patient in the Perth Royal Infirmary.

Since 2005 there has been a consistent fall of about 14% in the MRSA superbug infections according to figures revealed in the Health Protection Scotland’s (HPS) first annual report on superbug rates. Professor Jacqui Reilly, from HPS, said "real inroads had been made in cutting healthcare-associated infections.”

"This report demonstrates that real inroads have been made to reducing healthcare associated infection in NHS Scotland, however there is still a substantial burden of these infections occurring every year in healthcare. Efforts should continue to focus on preventing and controlling these infections to the irreducible minimum."  Said Jacqui Reilly.

A decline of 43 % was reported from 2008 in infection cases in 2009. The number of infections in 2009 were 3,625 as compared to the number of infections in 2008 at 6,322 cases in over 65 year old patients. The falling figures should be reassuring to the patients according to Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon who feels that despite the decline there is more work to be done to reduce the cases of hospital infections from these bugs.

She has asked the HPS to look at additional steps that can be implemented to cut the cases of infections even more. “When it comes to hospital infections we may be winning the battle, however, as the outbreak earlier this week at Perth Royal Infirmary reminded us, we have not yet won the war” said Ms Sturgeon.

The view was supported by Labour health spokeswoman Jackie Baillie who said, "The recent death of a patient in Perth Royal Infirmary shows there is no room for complacency."