New machine gives MRSA test results ‘within hours’

FAMILIES who have lost loved ones to the MRSA superbug want every hospital to get a new kind of machine that can detect the lethal illness within hours.

The MRSA and Families campaign group wants every patient tested upon arrival at hospital as part of the fight to rid wards of the bug, which can maim and kill.

Group founder Margaret Dawson said current tests on patients with suspected MRSA can take five days.

“Hospitals could have the results within hours and this could save lives and stop others getting infected. MRSA is such an awful infection to have - people who have caught the superbug have come out of hospital sicker than when they went in. Early diagnosis and treatment is the key.”

Ms Dawson’s husband, Joe, was left seriously ill when he went into hospital for a back operation.

Now campaigners are urging Health Minister Mary Harney to ensure hospitals tackle the antibiotic-resistant bug, which has crippled some and killed others.

They want every hospital to get one of the new machines that can detect MRSA from patient swabs in two hours.

The devices also pick up winter vomiting bug, which is currently affecting in hospitals nationwide. It also detects the human strain of bird flu, which has claimed lives in the Far East.

Tomorrow the campaigners will gather in Dublin to announce their backing for the machine.

Among those present will be Tony Kavanagh, who contracted MRSA following a leg operation at a Dublin hospital.

Mr Kavanagh said he almost died after the bug attacked wounds in his legs. The effect of MRSA was so bad he had to learn how to walk again.

MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococus aureus) is a bacterium commonly found on the skin, which has become increasingly resistant to commonly used antibiotics.

Joe Mayne, of the Biofact firm which makes the MRSA detectors, said the illness needed to be higher on the Government’s agenda.

Mr Mayne, who is also a member of the campaign group, said: “MRSA is not high on the agenda of the Health Service Executive or hospitals.

“This country has not got a grip of MRSA. More money needs to go into infection control at all levels of the health service but particularly in hospitals. That’s where we need to start.”