§ Dr. KumarTo ask the Secretary of State for Health how many cases of MRSA in hospitals have been reported in each of the last five years; in which areas; and if he will make a statement on action his Department is taking to address MRSA. [139401]
§ Miss Melanie JohnsonThese data are not collected centrally. The national mandatory surveillance system for methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) blood stream infections (bacteraemias), started in April 2001. Information from this is published in the Communicable Disease Report Weekly and is available at http://www.hpa.org.uk/cdr/PDFfiles/2002/ cdr2502.pdf and http://www.hpa.org.uk/cdr/PDFfiles/ 2003/cdr2503.pdf
The Chief Medical Officer's long-term strategy to prevent and reduce healthcare associated infections in the national health service, announced earlier this year, will set out actions to control all health care associated infections, including MRSA. This builds on our current programme of work and will be published shortly.