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Search forHospitals winning war against superbugs
Friday, November 21, 2008, 09:00
Figures show that both Grimsby's Diana, Princess of Wales Hospital (DPoW) and Louth County Hospital slashed their infection rates for Clostridium difficile and MRSA in the last year.
In Grimsby, infection rates for C.difficile – a potentially lethal gut infection which causes severe diarrhoea – dropped 70 per cent from 73 cases to 51, between January and September.
Similarly, United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust saw a 41 per cent drop in the bug, down 14 cases to 17 at Louth County Hospital for 2007/2008.
Meanwhile, DPoW Hospital cut its MRSA rate from 14 cases in 2007, to 11 cases this year, and Louth saw a reduction from two cases to just one.
Hospital bosses say the cut in cases is down to better infection control measures, and tighter controls on the use of antibiotics in patients.
The number of C. difficile cases in NHS hospitals have dropped in the last quarter, Health Secretary Alan Johnson has said.
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