Battle against hospital superbugs to be stepped up

MORE than half of the positions required to tackle the hospital superbug problem will be advertised shortly as part of a €15 million, three-year strategy, the Health Service Executive (HSE) said yesterday.

A Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC) report published last month criticised the slow progress in tackling hospital-acquired infections, particularly methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and called for more funding.

It said Ireland was one of the few countries in Europe without a national programme for the surveillance of healthcare-linked infections.

The report calls for the appointment of more key personnel and the provision of more isolation facilities and ongoing education for all healthcare professionals and the public.

But the HSE insisted yesterday that €15m would be spent by the end of 2008 and that 52 additional staff will be employed to tackle the problem this year.

HSE assistant national director for health protection Kevin Kelleher said he knew what needed to be done because he had been a member of the National Strategy for the Control of Antimicrobial Resistance in Ireland (SARI) Committee.

He said work was already underway before the HPSC’s 2005 report was published because he was already aware of its recommendations. This year the HSE was concentrating on filling in the infrastructure deficits mentioned in the report, such as the appointment of infection control nurses, pharmacists and surveillance scientists.

He agreed that hygiene was only part of the problem and had taken a multi-strand approach. It included hygiene audits, the environment of the hospitals and educating staff.

British superbug expert, Professor Richard James, said 30% of the population carry the bacteria, staphylococcus aureus, in their nose or on their skin without causing an infection.

“Many patients infect their wounds with their own bacteria after surgery in hospital or that bacteria is transmitted by staff to other patients. So a lot needs to be done in hospitals,” he said.

It was crucial, he said, that patients were screened on admission for surgery to see if they had MRSA.

He pointed out that hospital-acquired infections were blamed for 5,000 deaths in Britain every year.

“The percentage of blood infections that are methicillin-resistant is over 40%. And it’s going to get worse,” he warned.

“Now we have community MRSA, which exists outside hospitals.

“It produces a toxin that eats your flesh, attacking cells in your lungs. The mortality rate is about 50% even in young, healthy athletes. Imagine if that acquires vancomycin resistance,” he said.