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Mrsa In Ireland
By MRSAinfection.org, Thu Dec 8th
In Ireland those who run the hospitals would rather you did notknow how many people were being infected as a result of ahospital acquired infection. Incredibly, journalists have been forced to use freedom ofinformation legislation to prise the information from thehospitals and even then the picture is incomplete with somehospitals “unable” to provide any figures at all and with nonational figures available on the death rate from MRSA or other“superbug” type infections. The Health Service Executive has said it will now ask all Irishhospitals to publish data on the prevalence of the potentiallyfatal MRSA on a regular basis
The best estimates at the moment are that there are about 8000patients per annum picking up an infection in hospital and ofthat number approximately 550 go on to acquire a more seriousbloodstream infection. A recent survey by the Irish Patients Association revealed thatin 2003, Ireland recorded the highest number of MRSA cases inEurope . In that year, Ireland recorded 119 cases per million.This is over twice the rate of the next worst country, Portugal, with 46 cases per million. Other
European countries with a bigMRSA problem include the UK , Greece and France . The Dutch havereduced their infection rate to almost zero and are seen as amodel of how to tackle the problem. Ireland would seem to have been slower to recognise and react tothe threat than the UK and some of its other Europeanneighbours but improved hygiene measures have been but in placeand the new administration structure for the health service willsee the different health boards operating in a much moreco-ordinated manner than in the past and already there is anationwide hygiene audit of all hospitals underway. As with the other nations battling this problem, now that thegenie is out of the bottle it may not be so easy to put it backin. The chronic over use of antibiotics has dramatically reducedthe arsenal available for the fight. The systematic and longterm decline in hospital resources, particularly in the area ofhygiene, coupled with overcrowding will make it a very difficultproblem to solve in the short or even medium term. About the author:© MRSAinfections.org 2005 MRSAinfection.org isa website dedicated to bringing you up to date with all thelatest information on MRSA and the threat it poses to you.
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