Super bug claims lives
THE C Difficile bug contributed towards eight more deaths in Northern Trust hospitals last month, according to the Trust.
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.
"We are, however, seeing an increase in the number of relapsed cases. This is a reflection of the nature of the illness that can reoccur in some patients for several months depending on the patient's primary condition and whether there is a need to prescribe further antibiotic treatment. All of these patients have low levels of immunity to infection.
"We are also seeing an increase in the number of patients developing symptoms within 48 hours of admission to hospital which indicates that they were infected when admitted.
"This is reflected in the regional figure which shows a 60.5% increase in the levels of C. difficile in the community referred from the first quarter of this year when compared with the same period in 2007. (C. Difficile surveillance quarter ending March 2008)
"We are continuing to manage the outbreak declared in January this year and there are clear signs that the range of infection control procedures we have introduced show that we have controlled the spread of infection in Trust hospitals.
"We have been, and will continue to, work with General Practitioner colleagues to manage the use of antibiotics in line with joint policies and with recently published NICE guidelines."
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Saturday 04 February 2012
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