(c) MRSA Action UK June 2008
Press and media contact:
Derek Butler, Chair
Email: derek.butler@mrsaactionuk.net
Telephone: 07762 741114 Archived articles
For the latest Press Releases from MRSA Action UK visit the Opinion Formers Website at:
Derek Butler, Chair
Email: derek.butler@mrsaactionuk.net
Telephone: 07762 741114 Archived articles
For the latest Press Releases from MRSA Action UK visit the Opinion Formers Website at:
Deaths linked to the hospital superbug MRSA reached record levels in Scotland last year, with the number recorded more than double that logged seven years ago.
The infection was a factor in 230 deaths during 2007, according to data from death certificates released by the General Register Office for Scotland yesterday.
In 56 cases, MRSA killed the patient and in 174 it was a contributory cause. The toll varied between different hospitals, with 14 deaths at Ninewells in Dundee and 13 at Stobhill in Glasgow. Patient groups said the figures were worrying but not surprising. Back in 1996 doctors certifying deaths noted MRSA as a factor on just 34 occasions. It is understood greater awareness among health professionals of the condition has led to the rise since then.
Dr Jean Turner, a former GP who now serves as executive director of the Scotland Patients' Association, said she believed the number who lose their lives to the superbug may still be under-reported.
"I think there is a danger we still do not know the extent of it yet," she said.
"I know everyone is working hard, but I think there is a way to go."
MRSA is a type of bacterium - Staphylococcus aureus (SA) - which is carried on the surface of the skin by around a third of the population. It begins to cause problems when it breaks into the body, with surgical wounds and entry points for tubes and catheters presenting a particular problem.
Straightforward SA infections can be treated with antibiotics but the bacteria has mutated, becoming resistant to such treatments, creating the MRSA superbug which is much harder to fight.
Dr Turner said, despite the high profile of the infection, she believed people still did not understand the role they could play in combating the problem. The number of patients diagnosed with an MRSA infection in Scottish hospitals has been falling slowly for some 15 months. New data, released this week, showed the fifth consecutive drop between April and June this year, when the number of cases fell to 185, compared to 197 for the previous three months.
While acknowledging the rise in mortality, the Scottish Government has welcomed this trend. A spokeswoman said: "It is disappointing to see any increase in deaths attributed to MRSA infection. However, it is important to note that these figures cover the period to the end of 2007. Information released on Wednesday on serious MRSA infections in 2008 gives us cause for cautious optimism that a corner is now being turned."
Derek Butler, chairman of charity MRSA Action UK, is less convinced the problem is coming under control. He said: "I just do not think the policies they have in place are having the impact they were hoping they would have ... It doesn't surprise me that the number of deaths has gone up. They need to step up their game."
Widespread screening of hospital staff for MRSA is among the measures he would like to see introduced.
http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/news/display.var.2459651.0.Deaths_linked_to_MRSA_superbug_hit_record_levels.php
Deaths linked to MRSA have risen by 300% in a decade
Published Date: 11 October 2008
DEATHS linked to the MRSA superbug in Scotland have more than tripled in a decade, figures revealed yesterday.
Last year 230 deaths were recorded as having MRSA as either the main cause or a contributory factor - up from 69 in 1997. And in just a year deaths rose by almost 8 per cent, up from 213 in 2006.
The figures come after a report earlier this week found that cases of MRSA and Clostridium difficile were now falling in Scottish hospitals. The Scottish Government said an increase in deaths last year was disappointing, but more recent reductions in cases were a cause for optimism.
Earlier this week Health Protection Scotland (HPS) reported that MRSA cases fell 6 per cent between the first and second quarters of this year. C difficile cases also fell 7 per cent.
Experts believe part of the reason for rising deaths from superbugs such as MRSA and C difficile could be greater awareness. But in some cases it is also believed that more severe strains of disease and an increasing resistance to antibiotics could be contributing to rising mortality.
The Aberdeen-based microbiologist Professor Hugh Pennington said there was no evidence to suggest that more severe strains of MRSA were linked to rising deaths. But he said a lack of investigation meant more serious types could be being missed.
"One of the issues I am concerned about is how thoroughly some cases of MRSA are investigated to reveal whether some types are causing more severe disease than others.
"There is a possibility that we could miss an opportunity to target these strains."
Margaret Watt, of the Scotland Patients' Association, said the latest figures on MRSA deaths were disappointing.
"We really need to keep our eye on MRSA, as well as C difficile," she said.
"It is scary if we are going to keep seeing an increase in deaths from both these infections."
A spokeswoman for the Scottish Government said: "It is disappointing to see any increase in deaths attributed to MRSA infection. However, it is important to note that these figures cover the period to the end of 2007.
"Information released this week on serious MRSA infections in 2008 gives us cause for cautious optimism that a corner is now being turned," she said.
IN NUMBERS
185
cases of MRSA reported in Scotland between April and June this year, down 6 per cent on the previous three months.
30
per cent of healthy people estimated to carry Staphylococcus aureus - the bacterium linked to MRSA - harmlessly on their skin.
1,861
cases of C difficile reported in Scotland between January and March this year.
1,732
cases of C difficile reported between April and June.
597
death certificates mentioned C diff as a cause or factor, in 2007 in Scotland.
027
strain of C diff linked to more severe disease.
28
deaths linked to MRSA in NHS Lanarkshire in 2007, up from 18 the previous year.
http://news.scotsman.com/scotland/Deaths-linked-to-MRSA-have.4582158.jp
BBC Radio
John Warnett
Broadcast on Radio
John Warnett talks to Derek Butler, Chair of MRSA Action UK about Kent Health Watch, the new partnership run by Kent County Council and the NHS
A new scheme is underway in
Derek
Good morning Sir.
John
Will this work these ideas of letting the public have their say on the health service?
Derek
I think it's an excellent idea. Many companies run similar schemes within their own industries. The industry I work in, which is the nuclear industry, have what they call "Safe Call". So if you see anything that you think is not quite right or unsafe then you can phone this number. And I think that system that's been set up the County Council in Kent and the NHS is excellent, it gives the public the chance to say what they think is wrong with the services that are being provided.
John
You as being part of the MRSA Action group, obviously there will be, I mean we've had stories on this radio programme, particularly after the outbreak where people have said that we saw people going from one patient to another without washing their hands. Is that the sort of thing you expect them to bring up with these people?
Derek
Yes, the Government are trying to encourage patients and relatives to question the medical staff in the way that they go between patients without washing their hands and things like that. And I think it's great that this system is being set up. And I think that the public need to question the medical staff. Humans are fallible, they make mistakes and the staff are under enormous pressure in the NHS, they do a marvellous job, but they will forget from time to time, and I think that little reminder is always handy.
John
One suspects that there were probably complaints made about the
Derek
I think that's down to the system that's set up. It would be nice if the public were actually a part of the system, ie they sat on the panels or boards that are there, so that they can then have a look and say yes we need to question this, and we need to look at it. The
John
Derek, thank you, Derek Butler from MRSA Action UK talking about the new scheme set up in
Kent Health Watch operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week by telephone, texphone and email.
- Call 08458 247 103
- Email kenthealthwatch@kent.gov.uk
- Texbox 08458 247 905
http://www.kent.gov.uk/council-and-democracy/about-the-council/contact-us/kent-health-watch/
On the frontline in war on germs"We have already eradicated one or two, but we can't even think of eradicating most of them"
Published Date: 03 October 2008
IMAGINE for a moment what the end of the world might be like. War ravished nations obliterated by nuclear attack? Perhaps.
A mighty big bang and we all go out the way the earth came in? Well, maybe.
Or what if we're wiped out by a clever life-form - too smart for us mere humans - that will march on the human race with such an invincible, unstoppable force that men, women and children will simply succumb to its superiority and, one by one, suffer in misery until they die?
Well, unless you believe in UFOs and Dr Who, then that couldn't possibly happen... could it?Or what if we're wiped out by a clever life-form - too smart for us mere humans - that will march on the human race with such an invincible, unstoppable force that men, women and children will simply succumb to its superiority and, one by one, suffer in misery until they die?
Enter softly spoken Dorothy Crawford. With her cropped grey hair, white lab coat and spectacles, she is an unlikely messenger for the Grim Reaper.
Yet her warning that the human race is already being outpaced in the fight of its life - having unwittingly cultivated the ideal breeding ground for the very life forms that could ultimately threaten our survival - is enough to make even the most sceptical among us reach for the life insurance policies.
For it seems that if the rising cases of antibiotic resistant hospital superbugs like Clostridium difficile and MRSA don't get us, there's any number of other cunning little bugs waiting to leap from animal to human and rapidly jeopardise our very existence.
The Professor of Medical Microbiology at Edinburgh University isn't quite ringing the death knell right now, but she does have a stern warning.
"Will we ever win the fight against microbes? I don't think so," she shrugs. "We can get rid of some of them - we have already eradicated one or two - but we can't even think of eradicating most of them. They are in nature. What we have to do is be more aware of the situations in which they arise, do more surveillance and monitoring and get ready to respond when there is an epidemic."
That's when - not if. And if anyone should know, it's Prof Crawford, whose latest book, Deadly Companions, warns of the increasing risks posed by animal-borne diseases which thanks to modern life, livestock farming methods and our love for international travel, are more liable than ever to jump the species and infect millions at an alarming rate.
She's not alone in fearing the worst. Earlier this week the government's leading infection adviser, Prof. Hugh Pennington, warned he fears a major outbreak of superbugs unless public monitoring is given more resources. "If we neglect these bugs, we neglect them at our peril," he stressed. "The technology is there to spot these things as they appear and we know how to react to them."
But who knows where - or when - the next superbug will hit?
"Microbes are always a step ahead of us," Prof Crawford explains. "They have a generation time of a day while ours is 30 years. We are always going to be on the back foot and having to react to them."
Potentially devastating diseases emerge at an astonishing rate - around one pops up every year. When and where the next one will emerge, is anyone's guess.
"They are mostly from animals - and we have to recognise where the risks are and have the mechanics in place for recognising them and controlling them quickly," adds Prof Crawford.
"In Western society we are protected from a lot of it, yet there are still 17 million deaths a year from infectious diseases and 95 per cent of them are in poor countries."
Indeed, the third world pandemic of bubonic plague is under way right now, carried by rats and stretching halfway across America. The leap to humans could happen at any time.
And HIV is already responsible for the worst pandemic ever known. It jumped to humans from a chimpanzee subspecies and aided by a silent incubation period it spread around the globe. Now there are 40 million people living with it, 25 million dead and around 10,000 dying every day.
The same could have evolved courtesy of Sars if the men and women in the white coats hadn't come to our rescue.
A single microbe made the leap from a cat to a human in a marketplace in China, sparking an outbreak of atypical pneumonia in humans. The doctor treating them travelled to Hong Kong unwittingly infecting 17 others who then carried the virus to five countries. One passenger on a single flight infected 22 people.
"In fact, things worked very well with Sars," says Prof Crawford, awarded the OBE in 2005. "We saw what was developing and we stopped it."
Although her latest book is a chilling dossier on the threat from the humble microbe, the Glasgow-born professor's real passion lies in another area of her laboratory work that, hopefully, will save many desperate patients' lives.
Three years ago it emerged that a pioneering strategy for tackling cancer had saved the life of a ten-year-old girl, struck down by a potentially fatal brain tumour.
With her health rapidly deteriorating, doctors turned to Prof Crawford as a final resort. Immune-system cells taken from blood donors were used to attack the virus and suppress the girl's deadly tumours. A bone-marrow transplant followed and, incredibly, she lived.
Today she juggles that pioneering research with helping to raise the profile of the dramatic research work going on at the university - and writing chilling tomes warning the world of the risks posed by those pesky microbes.
It sounds gloomy, but Prof Crawford does offer a glimmer of hope in the battle of the bugs. "Well," she smiles, "at the end of the day we have larger brains than they do, so we must have a slight advantage, surely."
- Deadly Companions by Dorothy H Crawford is published by Oxford University Press
Cameron's outrage at OAP constituent's 'degrading' MRSA death
Last updated at 1:41 AM on 02nd October 2008
David Cameron expressed his fury at Labour's Health Service failures by highlighting the case of a constituent killed by a hospital-acquired superbug.
The Tory leader used his speech at the party conference to vent his anger about a letter he received from pensioner John Woods, whose 63-year-old wife died after contracting MRSA.
The 66-year-old told Mr Cameron, who represents Witney in Oxfordshire, that the treatment his wife Elizabeth received was 'like something out of a 17th century asylum, not a 21st century ?90billion Health Service'.
Mr Woods also described how, as his wife's life ebbed away last August, he remembered her 'sitting on the edge of her bed in distress and saying, "I never thought it would be like this".'
A clearly moved Mr Cameron told the conference audience that the details of the case were 'so dreadful and so degrading' that he could not read out any more.
He said he forwarded the grieving widower's letter to Alan Johnson but the Health Secretary's reply - which listed a series of official bodies Mr Woods could write to to complain - left him 'appalled'.
Barely concealing his anger, Mr Cameron told delegates: 'A Healthcare Commission. A Health Service Ombudsman. A Patient Advice and Liaison Service. An Independent Complaints Advocacy Service.
'Four ways to make a complaint but not one way for my constituent's wife to die with dignity. God, we have got to change that.'
Mr Woods and his wife, a nurse, had been married for 37 years and lived in a village near the town of
Last night, Mr Woods, who has a daughter Catherine who lives in
It is understood he is spending time working on a cargo ship. His wife is believed to have been treated at
The spokesman insisted that the letter was personally signed by Mr Johnson, who also wrote how sorry he was about the situation.
But Mr Cameron's spokesman hit back, saying: 'The extract was entirely accurate and Labour's response just shows how out of touch they are. Mrs Woods suffered an appalling ordeal and nothing can alter that fact.'
Derek Butler, chairman of the MRSA Action UK pressure group, said: 'We wholeheartedly agree with David Cameron's speech.
'It is high time both the Government and the opposition put as much effort into fighting health care infections as they have trying to save the financial markets and banks.'
Penicillin DNA Sequence Brings Hope For New Antibiotics
Posted on: Thursday, 2 October 2008, 08:00 CDT
The DNA sequence of the fungus that produces penicillin has been deciphered by Dutch researchers.
This monumental discovery is just in time for the 80th anniversary of the breakthrough of penicillin, discovered by Sir Alexander Fleming.
Researchers hope that discovering the genome of Penicillium chrysogenum will increase further development of new antibiotics to help surmount the problems of resistance.
Penicillium chrysogenum is employed in the manufacture of antibiotics such as amoxicillin, ampicillin, cephalexin and cefadroxil. The use of penicillin in destroying bacteria was found in 1928 after mold spores unintentionally tainted a Petri dish in a laboratory. Further work on the drug revealed it was safe for humans to use.
Approximately one billion people take penicillin every year world wide. However, antibiotic resistance is becoming more and more problematic.
Experts have frequently warned against the overuse of antibiotics and cautioned there is a vital need for the industry to try to create new drugs.
Researchers also stated that in addition to fighting resistance, the genome sequence could also improve the overall manufacturing of antibiotics.
Dr Roel Bovenberg, a researcher at DSM Anti-Infectives, noted that the four-year project had brought up "several surprises" that they were further investigating in cooperation with academics.
"It provides insight into what genes encode for, know-how in terms of manufacturing and new compounds to be identified and tested," he said. "There are genes and gene families we did not think would be involved in biosynthesis of penicillin - they weren't on our radar so that is our follow-up work."
Professor Hugh Pennington, who is an expert in bacteriology at the University of Aberdeen, stated that the genome sequence could lead to the improvement and creation of new antibiotics.
"If we understand the genome we might be able to manipulate the genes," Pennington stated.
The professor noted that in the past antibiotics had been discovered by simply looking at fungi production; recently scientists had been working to modify current treatments.
"All the easy targets have been hit by one drug or another so it's proving very difficult to find new compounds and we're going to need some lateral thinking," he said. "If the genome helps to do antibiotic development quicker, then that can only be a good thing."
The complete work on the 13,500-gene sequence will be published in October's Nature Biotechnology.
penicillin_dna_sequence_brings_hope_for_new_antibiotics/
