HC Deb 05 May 1998 vol 311 cc352-3W
Mr. Flynn

To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many people have died from contracting MRSA in hospital in the last 10 years. [40177]

Ms Jowell

Methicillin-resistantStaphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infection can take the form of many different diseases from trivial skin infections to pneumonia or septicaemia. Often the causative micro-organism is not specified on the death certificate. MRSA does not have a distinct code within the revision of the International Classification of Diseases used for encoding death registration data at the Office for National Statistics. Consequently there are no centrally held statistics on deaths from this cause.

Mr. Flynn

To ask the Secretary of State for Health what plans the Government have to fund research into methods of controlling the spread of MRSA in hospitals. [40175]

Ms Jowell

We are considering, with the Medical Research Council and others, the need for any new research in this area and in the whole area of antimicrobial resistance, including taking account of the recommendations of the recent report of the House of Lords Committee on Science and Technology into antibiotic resistance.

Mr. Flynn

To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many incidents of MRSA there have been in eazch of the last 10 years. [40309]

Ms Jowell

Information on the total number of cases of infection or colonisation with methicillin resistantStaphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is not collected centrally.

National epidemiological data on MRSA are compiled by the Public Health Laboratory Service (PHLS) rather than centrally by the Department, from isolates submitted voluntarily by hospitals in England and Wales for specialist microbiological tests. From these data the number of incidents of MRSA—three or more patients infected or colonised by the same strain of MRSA in a month from the same hospital—is recorded. A table showing the number of incidents for the years 1992–1997 is given. Data before 1992 are not available.

Year Number of incidents
1992 342
1993 544
1994 1,064
1995 1,616
1996 2,107
1997 11,136
1Data for first six months only.

The Department is currently discussing with the PHLS ways of improving surveillance systems to provide more complete data on MRSA.

Mr. Flynn

To ask the Secretary of State for Health what plans he has to control the spread of MRSA in hospitals. [40176]

Ms Jowell

All hospitals have specialist infection control teams whose function is to advise on the precautions necessary to prevent the spread of infection in the individual circumstances of each hospital and according to the type of patient. The 1998/99 Priorities and Planning Guidance makes it clear that the obligations which health authorities have for communicable disease control in relation to the protection of the public health, must be fulfilled, (EL(97)39).

Copies of current Departmental guidance to the National Health Service on the control of methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and on hospital infection control, (EL(94)74,HSG(95)10) have been placed in the Library. The Department has worked closely with professional organisations on the preparation of new guidelines to the NHS on the control of MRSA, which are scheduled for issue later this year.