Lethal superbug detected in two hospitals

A MUTATED superbug blamed for up to 50 deaths in Britain is present in two Irish hospitals.

Both hospitals, which have not been named, have since put urgent infection control measures in place to combat the potentially lethal 027 strain of Clostridium Difficile (C Diff).

The superbug was detected by scientists at University College Dublin’s Centre for Food Safety.

The C Diff 027 strain was found in one patient and two clusters at the hospitals.

There are many different strains of C Diff. The 027 strain is the most recent mutation.

The C Diff 027 produces 20 times as much toxin as other strains of C Diff and is resistant to many antibiotics.

Director for the Centre for Food Safety, Prof Seamus Fanning, said the bug was probably a bigger problem than MRSA.

C Diff, which can cause life-threatening colitis, has been found in 35 Irish hospitals.

The Health Protection Surveillance Centre scientific advisory committee is to make recommendations to the Health Service Executive (HSE) shortly for the surveillance and typing of the bug.

The HSE’s national director for population control, Dr Kevin Kelleher, said the vast majority of C Diff cases in hospitals were directly related to the use of antibiotics.

The research group based at St Vincent’s Hospital in Dublin are concerned that there may have been a number of undiagnosed C Diff 027 cases because of the absence of a national reference facility in Ireland.

At inquests last week it emerged that two patients at St Columcille’s Hospital in Loughlinstown, Co Dublin died after contracting C Diff.

Mary McDonald, 87, from Bray, Co Wicklow, died in June from C Diff.

Bridie O’Brien, 86, also from Bray, died of a sudden cardiac event with C Diff infection as a contributory cause.

MRSA and Families founder member, Margaret Dawson, believed that the spread of hospital superbugs was not being tackled with the kind of urgency it required.

The School of Biotechnology in Dublin City University has been investigating why some people get the more severe C Diff infection.

The research team is headed by Dr Christine Loscher who pointed out that the team intended examining the 027 strain and already had a theory as to why it was different.