MRSA focus ‘helping other infections’

The government needs to adopt a more “systematic” approach towards healthcare-associated infections, the head of pressure group MRSA Action has said.

Derek Butler’s comments to politics.co.uk came after it was suggested at a Lancet conference on infections that the government’s concentration on MRSA has actually had a negative impact on total contamination numbers.

Medical microbiologist Michael Millar told the conference MRSA bloodstream infections make up just two per cent of all healthcare-associated infections and warned that E. coli rates almost compensate for the virus.

“All you’ve done is replaced one problem with another one. There’s no evidence that overall we have fewer hospital infections or fewer people are dying,” the BBC quoted him as saying.

Former health secretary John Reid set a target in 2004 to achieve a 50 per cent cut in MRSA rates by 2008.

The Department of Health achieved this once the target date was extended by three months but at a cost, Mr Butler believes.

“The concentration on MRSA was good at the time, to focus people’s attention,” he said.

The MRSA Action chairman called for the immediate introduction of screening for all those entering hospitals, better enforcement of existing hygiene techniques and a “more systematic approach” to the problem generally.