Health

New stats reveal NHS hospital superbugs have fallen over past decade but up on last year

New stats on hospital bugs showed the rate of mrsa infection has fallen 81 per cent in the last decade and c.diff by 76 per cent.

Cases of killer hospital superbug MRSA have fallen by 81 per cent across hospitals in England in the last decade, figures reveal, with c.diff down 76 per cent.

New figures from Public Health England show that NHS trusts logged 846 cases of MRSA between April 1, 2017 and March 31, 2018.

This shows an 81 per cent decrease since 2007-2008 though infection rates of the the antibiotic-resistant bug are up 2.5 per cent from last year.

Figures also reveal clostridium difficile, known as C. diff, cases fell by 76.1 per cent compared to a decade ago.

However reports from NHS trusts of the bug, which causes diarrhoea, also increased on last year by 3.4 per cent to 13,286.

Worryingly, cases of food poisoning bug e.coli were up 27 per cent from five years ago to 41,060, with 18.8 per cent (7,704) occurring in hospitals.

The figure is 1.1 per cent more than than last year.

This translates at the rate of E. coli cases per 100,000 population rising from 60.4 in 2012 to 2013 to 74.3 in 2017 to 2018.

And cases of MSSA, an antibiotic-resistant bacteria similar to MRSA, increased by 36.2 per cent to 11,938 since 2011.

MSSA is often harmless and easier to treat because it is less resistant to certain treatments, according to the NHS.

The rate of all MSSA cases per 100,000 population, per year has risen from 16.4 in 2011 to 2012 to 21.6 in 2017 to 2018.

By Ben Gelblum and Lewis Pennock

Ben Gelblum

Contributing & Investigations Editor & Director of Growth wears glasses and curly hair cool ideas to: ben.gelblum (at) thelondoneconomic.com @BenGelblum

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