My sister’s needless suffering and death from MRSA

IN evidence to the Oireachtas Public Accounts Committee, Professor Brendan Drumm, chief executive of the HSE, last week stated: “The high prevalence of MRSA on our streets, as we speak, related to antibiotic use over the years.”

Many health professionals have been content to let the impression persist that a large proportion of the population are carriers of MRSA.

This is a fallacy. The Centers for Disease Controls and Prevention in Atlanta states that while up to 30% of people are carriers of SA, 29% carry the antibiotic-susceptible form MSSA and only 1% carry the resistant strain MRSA — the superbug. The existence of MRSA is indeed due to overuse and misuse of antibiotics. However, MRSA has to be acquired from some source — overwhelmingly, our hospitals and particularly intensive care units.