HC Deb 19 September 2003 vol 410 cc1263-4W
Dr. Evan Harris

To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many reports there were of antibiotic resistantE. coli in the NHS in (a) England, (b) each region and (c) each strategic health authority in each of the last six years.[128921]

Dr. Ladyman

Under a voluntary reporting scheme, the Health Protection Agency receives reports ofE. coli blood stream infections with their susceptibility to antibiotics from microbiology laboratories in England and Wales. Gentamicin resistance is monitored because it is used to treat the more serious E. coli infections.

Table I shows data on gentamicin resistance for England and Wales from 1997 to 1999. Data on gentamicin resistance in England, broken down by region, is available only from 2000. This is shown in table 2. Data by strategic health authority is not available.

Table 1: Escherichia coli blood stream infections resistant to gentamicin: England and Wales, 1997 to 1999
Number resistant
1997 132
1998 161
1999 175

Table 2: Escherichia coli blood stream infections resistant to gentamicin: England by region. 2000 to 2002
Number resistant
Region 2000 2001 2002
Northern and Yorkshire1 12 28
North East 8
Northern and Humberside 45
East Midlands 21 6 24
Eastern 24 48 58
London 45 30 67
South East 37 54 64
South West 17 20 31
West Midlands 12 15 108
North West 13 17 36
Total 181 218 441

1Northern and Yorkshire was divided into two regions—North East and Yorkshire and Humberside—in 2002.

Source:

Health Protection Agency—Communicable Disease Surveillance Centre.

Dr. Evan Harris

To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many reports of MRSA outside hospitals there were in(a) England, (b) each region and (c) each strategic health authority in each of the last six years.[128922]

Dr. Ladyman

A new national mandatory surveillance system for healthcare associated infection started with reporting of methicillin resistantStaphylococcus aureus (MRSA) blood stream infections (bacteraemias), in April 2001. All acute trusts in England now collect this information and results for the first year of this scheme (April 2001 to March 2002) were published by individual trust in the Communicable Disease Report Weekly on 20 June 2002. They are available at www.phls.co.uk/ publications/cdr/PDFfiles/2002/cdr2502.pdf.

Information for 2002–03 will be published shortly.

The data do not include information on where the infection was acquired (hospital or elsewhere). However, the majority of cases are acquired in hospital.

Dr. Evan Harris

To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many cases of urinary tract infections resistant to antibiotics were recorded in the NHS in(a) England, (b) each region and (c) each strategic health authority in each of the last six years.[128920]

Miss Melanie Johnson

This information is not held centrally.

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