§ Mr. RendelTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment he has made of the risks presented to(a) doctors, (b) nurses, (c) other hospital staff and (d) visitors by MRSA. [62863]
§ Ms JowellMethicillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus does not pose a significant risk to healthy people and we are not aware of any evidence to suggest that MRSA infection is more common in hospital staff or visitors than in the rest of the general population. Employers must make a local assessment of the risks from MRSA and other biological agents under the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 1994.
§ Mr. RendelTo ask the Secretary of State for Health how many legal cases there have been against hospitals in each of the last 10 years, as a result of patients becoming infected by MRSA. [62869]
§ Mr. RendelTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment he has made of future therapeutic problems likely to occur as a result of MRSA, GRAM-negative bacilli and enterococci becoming resistant to available antibiotics. [62865]
§ Ms JowellAntibiotic resistance is one of the major challenges facing the international public health community. It was the subject of a comprehensive and wide ranging report earlier this year from the House of Lords Select Committee on Science and Technology to which we will be responding shortly.
§ Mr. RendelTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what estimate he has made of the cost of the MRSA in each of the last three years. [62868]
§ Ms JowellThese data are not held centrally. In any individual patient, it is usually very difficult to assess the contribution of any infection acquired in hospital on the outcome, since many patients are already seriously ill from other conditions.
§ Mr. RendelTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what plans he has to develop community-based approaches to the prevention and transmission of MRSA. [62862]
§ Ms JowellThe Department has issued guidelines on the control of infection in nursing and residential homes and in September 1998 issued a report by the Standing Medical Advisory Committee on good practice in clinical prescribing of antimicrobials to minimise the emergence of antibiotic resistance. Our response to the House of Lords Select Committee on Science and Technology Report on Resistance on Antibiotics, which will be published shortly, will include information about other initiatives.
§ Mr. RendelTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what plans he has to make MRSA a notifiable disease. [62866]
187W
§ Ms JowellMethicillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus infection can take the form of many different diseases ranging from minor skin infections to pneumonia or septicaemia, all of which are more commonly due to other causes. It cannot be diagnosed clinically but only by laboratory tests. Notification of clinically suspected cases of all of these diseases would be wholly impracticable. However, consideration is being given to the introduction, at the earliest possible opportunity, of a statutory requirement on laboratories to notify certain specified test results, which may include those indicating MRSA infection.