A spokesperson today said the number reflected the high number of cases of C Diff at the start of the year.

A total of 19 new cases were identified in July - four fewer than the previous month.

The Department of Health said recently revealed that 86 people in Province had died so far this year and all those deaths were linked to C-Diff.

Dr Peter Flanagan, the trust's medical director, said: "Hospital medical staff are increasingly managing complex, often multiple, serious and chronic medical conditions.

"Modern antibiotics are very effective in treating many of these, resulting in a better outcome for patients.

"However, we have to balance prescribing with our understanding of the possible effects of long-term antibiotic use and the links with acquired infections such as C. difficile.

"This is increasingly an issue across health and social services for practitioners in all health care settings.

"The rate of new infections is falling. Using a root cause analysis approach for each new case we can say that there is considerably less transmission of the infection within Trust hospitals; that our infection prevention, control and isolation procedures are working.